ADKOS Episode Two: A Superhero's Destiny
by anime fearie
Summary: Destiny is back once again, but this time it looks as though she's ready to join up with our Turks against a common enemy. But can Destiny really be trusted? After all, it seems she's been using Reeve's own work on Cait to build a fury something of herown
1. Default Chapter

**A Different Kind Of Superhero - **

ADKOS Episode II: A Superhero's Destiny

_By AF_

**Part I.**

~

"I want you."

- Destiny Ryder

~

Starting Internal Drivers...

Check.

Internal Drivers Nominal.

Starting Systems Check...

Check Complete.

All Systems Nominal.

Bringing Systems Online...

Sensors;

Vision

Night Vision

Aural

Voice Synth Equalizer

Audio

Internal Audio

Sense

Sensor Check Complete.

Internal Tracking System Online.

Internal Weapons Guidance System Online.

Strategic Weapons and Combat Data Uploaded.

Computer Systems Connection Registering.

Damage Incursion Equipment Online.

Internal Battery Test...

Test Complete;

70% Primary Power

30% Secondary Power.

Checking Memory...

Uploaded all added data.

Booting...

RYDER SYSTEMS

RYDER'S COMPANY JUNON

Artificially Intelligent Mechanized Instrument.

AIMI - Prototype.

            Opening her eyes, she blinked them rapidly,  unaccustomed to the bright fluorescents beating her eyes. At first she didn't see much except vague outlines. Then moving shapes began to resolve around her. A voice. 

            "Did it work?"

            A voice she felt she ought to know. Two of them actually.

            "One moment. She needs to acclimatize."

            One impatient, the other almost kindly and gentle. The second was much closer to her.

            Finally the two people resolved fully in her vision and she was met with two faces both looking at her intently as she lay on her stomach on what looked to be a waist high metal table. 

            The first woman, the impatient one, looked at her almost eagerly. A little unnerving. She had long dark hair that fell over her shoulder as she bent closer to the bench, focused green eyes and a rather hard expression. At one time she could understand the woman's impatience, but at the same time it confused her.

            The second woman, a woman with dark eyes and slightly curly and somewhat disheveled unremarkable mousy brown hair watched her concernedly and a little nervously. She could associate far better with that look at the moment.

            "Well?" The first prompted impatiently.

            "A moment Miss Ryder. Please. She may be a little disorientated and possibly even a little frightened. Remember you disallowed the activation test prior to the individuality inputs. "

            "Scared." Miss Ryder snorted, straightening up and putting her hands on her slender hips. "If you had taken my suggestion and only used me, it wouldn't be scared Ryana."

            Ryana seemed to take a small calming breath before answering just as calmly,             "The notes told us how the Mark Two suffered with only one source.  It could result in major behavioral problems in the long run. We needed a second source. I suggest even using a third."

            The two were talking over her, but she didn't mind. She was confused and /very/ disorientated. It would be better if she found out what was going on before drawing attention to herself.

            "Yeah, well, why you Ryana? Why not Weran or Matthew?"

            "I suggested another woman in the interests of gender orientation for her. And you were insistent one of the sources would be yourself. We don't need to confuse her anymore than necessary."

            "Oh great, so now I have to be worried about gender issues for my weapons." Miss Ryder said throwing up her hands. 

            Ryana scowled slightly, but made sure Miss Ryder couldn't see it. Instead, Ryana turned all attention back to her.

            "Why won't it do anything but lay there and blink at us?" Miss Ryder asked.

            Ryana seemed to ignore the other woman. "Can you hear me?" She asked her instead.

            She nodded slightly. Why did she do that?

            "And why does the thing have red eyes?" Miss Ryder asked pointedly. "I mean I know the prototype doesn't particularly look fierce. So why bother? A nice touch for one of the assembly models later on, but for this?" Miss Ryder almost sounded disgusted.

            "I couldn't remake the iris coverings from the designs. Not yet anyway. The lights from the optics are red. I didn't do it on purpose."

            "Yeah well, it looks like an albino." 

            She blinked up at Miss Ryder and asked; "Is something wrong with me?" That shocked her. Talking. She new she had the ability. Expected herself to be able to do it even. But it still shocked her as if it were the first time she had done such a thing. Surely that hadn't been the first time she had talked. Was it? By the reactions by the other two women, she would have to say it was. 

            Ryana was the first to recover from the apparent shock. "Why, do you feel like there is something wrong?"

            She automatically went to move in order to stand, and was just as surprised that she could, and looked down at herself. White. Pure white. That shocked her more. She had not expected that. She was very short too. And somewhat fluffy. She screwed up her face. She was short, fluffy and white. Something tugged at her back as she moved. A thin cord ran from somewhere in her back to a humming machine next to her.

            "I don't know." She answered softly.  "I don't know what is supposed to be normal."

            "Isn't it working?" Miss Ryder asked coming back over to the bench.

            Ryana scowled at her again but didn't offer any comments. Instead Ryana kept talking to her. "You are currently hooked into the building's mainframe. Follow the directions in your programming and access a file called AIMI. You will find all your answers."

            "Is that wise?" Miss Ryder asked.

            "She needs to know who she is." Ryana answered as if it were obvious.

            "What's AIMI?" She asked just as softly.

            Ryana smiled warmly, reassuringly. "That's you Aimi."

            That must be her name. Aimi. Closing her eyes to better concentrate, she opened the file.

*********************

            "You are so fucked up, it is beyond words Reno." Cait told him pointing one extended claw at him for emphasis, "I am /not/ a perverted flasher! I'm not /that/ much like you."

            Reno grunted as he hefted his side of the heavy burden out of the chopper and onto the ground on the helipad.  The canvas covered object looked decidedly bulbous and mog shaped. It was the reason they had come to Junon after all, but Cait scowled even more fiercely when he saw it. He still hadn't forgiven the Mog for attacking him last week.

            "All I was suggesting," Reno continued slightly winded leaning his back against the Mog as he talked, "Was that Reeve could at least get some pants or something for you. You /are/ wandering around naked."

            Reeve, on the other side of the Mog merely leant forward with his elbows on top of the Mog and grinned past Reno at Cait. He didn't offer any words of support.

            "To cover up what?" Cait asked catching his tail and holding it in both paws. "And what would I do with this?"

            "If you stuck it down your pants people might think you did have something to cover up after all." Elena put it striding past the three toward the van that waited just off the helipad, an armful of equipment carried easily in both arms.

            Oddly enough, Cait thought over the idea for a few minutes before ultimately discarding it. "Might freak people out when I got angry."

            That was apparently enough for Reeve, his head went down onto his arms while his shoulders shook with laughter.

            "Good party trick though." Reno said with a grin. "But I still think pants is a good idea. And boots. You were complaining about the snow freezing up your joints like and old woman only a month ago."

            "He has boots." Reeve pointed out raising his flushed face. "He just never wears them. He thinks they're too noisy."

            "Well they are." Cait puffed indignantly, "No good for chasing pigeons."

            That caused both men to roll their eyes. Cait's pigeon chasing was an extraordinary thing to watch. Once they had seen him take a kamikaze jump from Reeve's roof into a snow drift in his attempt to catch one of them. It might have worked too had it not been for Cait's loud Tarzan bellow as he leapt from the roof. It wasn't as if he were chasing the birds for any cat like reasons as he had patiently explained to them both one day. He just refused to believe that anything alive was that stupid or slow for no other reason that they were just, well, stupid and slow and spent their entire days making pigeon noises and crapping on stuff. It was just some fiendishly evil plot to cover up their true purpose in the world.  While Reno had told him that the only evil plot pigeons ever had was to wait for the moment you finished washing your car to fly over and shit on it, Cait would hear none of it. Elena had pointed out that Cait was only like that because he had gotten a double dose of paranoia from both Reno and Reeve and needed an outlet for this paranoia and they ought to be lucky that he was taking it out on pigeons rather than people. Reeve wasn't sure he believed her, but he had let Cait continue since it looked as though Cait would never actually manage to catch a bird. Not if he kept hunting them like he was.

            "You never told me that the snow was getting to you." Reeve said in a decidedly parental tone.

            "Of course I didn't. You'd make me wear my boots." Cait replied shooting a glare at Reno.

            "And you know what Cait?" Reeve asked with a dangerous smile, "You're absolutely right. I want you to wear them more often. Starting today."

            Cait groaned. "Thanks a bunch Reno. Just don't come whining to me when you wake up one day with a pigeon standing over you with a pickaxe or something."

            "Cait," Reno began patiently, helping Reeve start to take the canvas off the Mog, "for one thing, a pigeon could never stand /over/ me. For another they're smaller than you and wouldn't be able to carry a pickaxe."

            "They could if it were a pigeon sized poisoned pickaxe." Cait pointed out helpfully. 

            "Poisoned pickaxe or not, if a pigeon ever /did/ try and kill me I'd blow it's brains out." Reno paused in what he was doing and screwed his face up, "Why am I talking about pigeons trying to kill me?"

            "Because you've finally seen the threat." Cait told him in his most wizened voice. "Deep down you know their true nature."

            "Cait, go play on the airplane runway or something." Reno told him turning to help Reeve once more.

            Reeve spoke up a moment later when Cait started to wander off. "Cait don't. Reno was joking."

            Cait was actually a little disappointed. 

            Finally they managed to get the canvas off the Mog. It stood slumped, in its usual inactive state. Both large hands tied securely in front of it for safety's sake. It had attacked once before, and they weren't willing to trust it all that much now. At least, not until Reeve could find out exactly what had been done to it and fix it. But the problem still remained that it was too heavy to really move it by lifting it farther than loading and unloading it into the chopper. Back in Icicle Village they had to get Cait to pilot the Mog out of the house and up to the chopper while Elena and Reno kept it covered with their guns. Reeve didn't really want to damage it, but he wasn't about to risk Cait to save it either. They were wary, but the Mog had only really played up once in maybe twenty times it had been switched on since its confinement in Ryder's lab. Still, the Mog was quite dangerous and it was better to be prudent now that Reeve was sure it had been tampered with.

            Now though, Elena was busy so Reno handed his spare handgun to Reeve while Cait secured the Mog's battery into its back panel and climbed on board. Not entirely unused to (at least not by now) but still not totally comfortable carrying a gun, Reeve took up position slightly ahead of the Mog and off to the side, opposite where Reno had chosen to stand. Flicking the safety off, as well as the guidance system (he didn't want to hit Cait or Reno by accident just because they were moving) he settled himself and nodded to Cait.

            "Here goes." Cait muttered flicking the switch behind the Mog's ear. 

            The Mog came to life, straightening up, eyes glowing slightly in the shade of the helicopter. 

            "The van." Cait commanded. 

            The Mog didn't move. It had been doing that a lot lately, balking on his commands. Still, that didn't mean anything. It had always been a little twitchy with Cait's voice commands since Cait's voice had changed slightly after his personality sources had been installed. 

            "Mog, the van." Cait repeated slightly annoyed rapping the Mog on the head with a paw. The Mog started off so suddenly, Cait almost lost his balance. It seemed to be shuffling over toward the van well enough, but Reeve raised his gun anyway. "Told you he'd be alright after I beat some sense into him." Cait called out proudly as he passed. 

            The Mog went on toward the van where Elena was still busy packing things away, picking up its pace slightly. Reeve frowned. It shouldn't have done that without a voice command. It went a little faster.

            "Hey Mog, slow up a bit would you?" He heard Cait say to it a little nervously.

            "Reeve?" Reno questioned.

            It was heading straight toward an oblivious Elena now, running forward.

            "Elena, move!" Reeve called out.

            Elena looked over her shoulder in time to see the Mog pounding toward her and leapt away from the rear doors just before the Mog crashed into one of them, slamming it shut. Cait had been thrown and was in the process of getting to his feet about ten foot away from the Mog, when it turned toward him instead. Reno had taken off the moment it had began to run, getting closer in order to take a shot. Without thinking, Reeve bought the back panel of the Mog into his sights and squeezed the trigger. The shot went straight into where he estimated the battery was and the Mog skidded to a stop, slumping down, inactive, five feet away from Cait who had uselessly raised his fists to ward off the attack.

            Reno also skidded a stop and half turned back toward Reeve, an odd look on his face. Reeve ignored the look and jogged over to make sure the Mog was in fact inactive. It was. Cait still had his paws raised and was eying the Mog, looking a little shaken.

            "Cait you can relax. Its out of power."

            Cait nodded and covered his fright with something a little more akin to anger. "Stupid piece of shit." He said giving the Mog a kick in the stomach.  "You keep trying to kill me and I might begin to think that you don't like me or something."

            "Quicker than it looks." Elena muttered from beside him.

            "Are you okay?" Reeve asked worriedly. 

            "Fine." Elena waved him off. "Thanks for the heads up."

            Reno came to stand on the other side of Reeve. Still giving Reeve that odd look. Reeve tried to ignore him again. He had a feeling what it was about anyway.

            Luckily the Mog had stopped not too far from the van and Reeve and Reno were able to haul it into the back. Unluckily, because Reeve had essentially destroyed its internal battery, it would remain there until Reeve could rebuild it and recharge it. While they worked, Reno kept up with the look, not saying a word. Eventually though, after the last thing had been loaded up near dusk, Reeve got fed up with it. They were taking a breather by the back of the van waiting for Elena to come back from securing the helicopter. Cait was 'helping' her.

            "What?"

            Reno remained silent for another moment as if thinking his answer over carefully. He didn't have to ask what Reeve meant. "Have you ever considered having proper firearm training?"

            That was pretty much what he had been expecting. "Not without reason. Why?" He felt pretty sure he knew the answer to that one as well.

            "That was a fair distance for a guy who has never really had any training to hit a moving target no bigger than your fist." Reno said thoughtfully. Reeve was sure it was an act. "That's a handy skill to have."

            "I'm not a Turk, remember?"

            "No. But you're not totally useless in a fight either. Maybe you missed your calling."

            "Hardly." Reeve replied. 

            Reno shifted his head slightly and shrugged. "Just something to think about is all. So," Reno began a little more brightly, "I'm assuming you're bunking with El. Does that mean I have the pleasure of babysitting the little demonic furball for the week?"

            "I thought Cait would stay with me. Elena's apartment isn't like my place with only one real room. He'll be fine with us."

            Reno grinned. They could both hear Elena's voice and her oaths from the chopper where Cait was helping her. "Happy little family huh?"

            Reeve grimaced. "Something like that."

*************

            Reno wandered across the tarred rooftop, hands stuck firmly in his pockets, whistling.  An hour ago, mere minutes after he'd gotten home from helping Reeve and Elena haul Reeve's stuff up to Elena's apartment, Rude had showed up at his door with news about the meeting. Rude had taken off as soon as they had touched down in Junon with orders to seek out Ryder and set up a meeting. It had taken a while, even for Rude, to arrange. But he had come through and had given him the details of where the meeting would be held. On a rooftop of all things, and unfortunately a place of Ryder's choosing. An abandoned warehouse down by the docks where they wouldn't be interrupted. Well the place wasn't entirely abandoned. By day it was filled with various dockworkers and ship-hands, but by night there was little more than a few crates lying around to show the place was used at all. There really were few places around Junon that stayed unused for very long.

            He was late naturally. From the time he'd been told when the meeting was supposed to be he had only had time to rush out of his apartment, jump on his bike and race down to the waterfront. Of course he had spent an extra ten minutes checking all possible escape routes around the building and making sure there were no nasty surprises waiting for him. All he had seen were a group of men talking down by one of the docks half a block away from the warehouse that he guessed had nothing to do with his meeting. Well, he assumed they didn't. They looked to be the kind of guys Destiny would hire, but seemed too wrapped up in their own conversation to be worrying over anything Reno might be doing.

            Late or not, he hadn't seen any signs of Destiny and had decided to wander over to the side of the building to see what that group of guys was up to. They were still standing there talking.

            "How's the view?"

            He resisted his first instinct to spin around toward the voice and kept his back to her, seemingly uninterested in her presence. He didn't want her to know she had managed to startle him.

            "Boring." Now he turned, slowly, to face her and managed to give her a lopsided grin as he slouched back against the cement barricade near the roof's edge. "I take that back, it's gorgeous."

            And it was. Dressed all in tight-fitting black, she stood with one hip thrust out to the side with her hand planted on it, long black hair flowing our behind her in the breeze sweeping in off the harbor. Her red painted mouth turned up at the corner in amusement.

            "There is nothing subtle about you is there Reno?" She asked slowly.

            "Nothing." He verified. "All or nothing has always been my motto."

            "A bold statement. But I take it you didn't have that wall of muscle ask me up here for polite conversation and light flirting."

            "You're right. I want to ask you a few questions."

            "And why would I answer any of your questions Turk? Since we've met you've hardly done me any favors. Why should I help you?"

            Reno scratched his chin as if thinking up an answer to that. Eventually he replied pleasantly, "Because if you don't answer them I'll find out anyway. By force if necessary. So why don't you do us both a favor and save me the hassle of having to kick your ass again and just answer my questions."

            Destiny shifted her stance, ever so slightly, but the look never changed on her face. "That depends on what you want to know now doesn't it."

            "The Mog you stole. What did you do to it?"

            Destiny's smile spread across her face. "Not giving you and your buddies some trouble now is it?"

            "I'll take that as meaning you did do something to it then."

            "I admit nothing." She replied easily. "I'm not an engineer or a scientist. I would've thought your pet geek could work it out himself. Not performing up to standards if he?"

            To be honest her finishing all her sentences with mocking questions was starting to get on his nerves. But at least he knew what effect it must have on people when he did exactly the same thing.

The 'pet' she was referring to was Reeve of course.

"I'm sure nothing that has ever been in your grasp ever has performed quite to same ever again." He replied coolly. "The Mog?"

            Destiny took her time to respond and when she did, she still didn't answer the question properly. "What were you looking at before?"

            Reno had just about had enough. "The men on the dock. Look I - "

            "What were they doing?" She interrupted. She didn't sound curious. 

            "Standing around scratching their nuts, what the fuck do I care?"

            "Oh I think you would care."

            So that was it. She had chosen this site for more than the reason than they could talk in private. He should have known better. There were two options as far as he could gather. Either they were her men and he was in for a world of hurt, or they were her enemies. Reno reasoned that if they were her men, she wouldn't have bothered pointing them out. Destiny seemed to like playing with her prey, but he was hardly surrounded.

            "Smugglers or mercs." Reno guessed in a bored tone. "So what?"

            Destiny sauntered over toward the edge of the roof, still managing to stay well out of Reno's reach, but close enough to make him wary. She did nothing threatening though. Instead she leaned sideways against the barricade and looked over toward the gathering.             "Heard of a man named Christian Levinson?"

            Yeah, he'd heard of him. "Levinson is a popular name." Reno answered.

"Don't play with me Reno. I know who he is. I want to know if you do."

Reno sighed. He didn't like being in this position. He wanted answers and had offered nothing in return other than an ass kicking. And ass kicking of which he wasn't even sure he'd end up winning anyway if he did try to give it. Besides, he wouldn't be surprised if she truly did know about Levinson anyway.

"Levins Marauders. Merc group that moved over from the east about five months ago when jobs from Wutai, Costa and the north starting drying up." Costa was Ryder's Group's work mainly. The north and a bit from smaller eastern towns was the Turks as well. Wutai was mainly the Turks. He could see where this was going. "Levinson has since set up shop in this district hoping to soak up some of the business coming in for the Junon groups.  They haven't been doing a bad job of it either. They don't have the money or numbers you do, they probably consist of nothing more than fifteen men, but they have skill."

"Have the Turks had any problems with them?"

"Differences maybe." Reno corrected weakly. About four months ago Christian Levinson himself had taken out a contract within his own company for Reno's head. The slimy bastard seemed to think that without Reno, the Turks would be finished. He wouldn't be surprised if a similar contract existed for Destiny either. They were really the only competition worthy of Levinson's time in Junon to get rid of. Between both groups they had managed to steal most of the jobs worth more than what Reno liked to think of as pocket change. If a job didn't come with at least three zeroes on the paycheck, he generally wasn't interested. (And that was only just for the really small Junon jobs.) And neither was Destiny he knew. Not with the numbers she had to sustain. Anything little fell to the smaller groups or the individual enterprisers. The reason he had found out about Levinson's order had been the amount of seemingly random, or not so random brawls he seemed to find himself in. And they weren't anything to sniff at either. He had managed to get through most only by the skin of his teeth, and more than one he had been almost unable to even walk away from. They were always specialized and never in the same thing. Such things had made him dig into whoever was obviously targeting him and he had come up with Christian Levinson. It seemed he also wasn't above hiring outsiders to carry out the contracts either. But not unlike the Turks, he only singled out the most skilled and the most dangerous. Another reason he had taken so long coming back to Junon as well. He had needed time to plan and prepare without it ending up in an all out clash between the Marauders and the Turks. He honestly didn't like their chances in such a circumstance and was curious as to why Levinson hadn't forced it himself by now. Odds were that he was busy with something else other than pissing fights with the locals. But it was only a matter or time. He had yet to tell Rude and Elena about Levinson. They hadn't done anything to attract his attention and Reno would prefer it to stay that way. If possible he had hoped the to kill the guy before anyone was the wiser. And he still hadn't come up with a plan yet.

"Is that all?"

It seemed as if Destiny had done her homework too. 

With a resigned look, Reno turned back to face the men on the dock. "He's the son of an ex Shinra Turk. His mother was from Wutai, but she lived in Junon working as one of the mayor's assistants when Francis Levinson was still a Turk. They never married but I suspect Christian uses the name for impact. Though there wouldn't be many that would recognize it. Frank Levinson served for ten years as a Turk more than thirty years ago, and wasn't a majorly famous one at that."

"You recognized it." She pointed out.

"I know the name of every Turk that served more than three years in the ranks whether it was before I was born or not." Reno answered dismissively. "Some even less. But you still haven't told me why you dragged me out here to watch a few of Levinson's men stand around talking on a dock. If I wanted to have a one way conversation and run the risk of getting my throat slit I'd go talk to a wall in a dark alleyway in central Junon while brazenly waving around a wad of gil."

"Impatience is a downfall of yours isn't it Reno?"

"No, common sense is my downfall. If you wanted me to help you kill Levinson you're shit outta luck. A pain in your ass I may have been over the past few months, but you haven't exactly been a bright ray of sun in mine either. Risking the Turks for this isn't what I had in mind."

Destiny rolled her eyes and crossed her ankles. Reno might've thought she looked relaxed if he didn't know any better. "Your precious Turks are not what I am after. I know Levinson's capabilities as well as I suspect you do by now. You're right, I do have the numbers, but you yourself have proved what a few skillful people can do in the right circumstances against numbers. No, I want only one thing." She smiled again, a rather predatory smile this time. "I want you."

Reno almost laughed. It was either that or visibly swallow and break any aura of cool composure he was trying to maintain. She really did have a nice smile. Among other things. Even when she smiled like she was going to bite him.

"Are you suggesting two of us up against fifteen of the kind of people I've been trying like hell not to be killed by for the past few months? That's worse. That's insane." Well so much for that cool composure. He hadn't meant to say that.

"He's as much a threat to you as to me. I won't risk the losses in an all out war. I'm not suggesting a truce either. Only in times when we fight for the greater good."

Reno wanted to massage his suddenly aching temples. He didn't dare though. "And Levinson creates more of a threat than the Turks do, is that it?"

"We may not like each other Reno." Destiny answered eventually, "and I will admit that business wise you are far more annoying than this little upstart Levinson. But we are both professionals, our problems stay professional. The attention this man has given me personally has less to do with simply stealing jobs and more to do with seeing me face down in a pool of my own blood."

"And you wouldn't see that for me if you had an open opportunity?" Reno asked genuinely surprised.

"If I wanted you dead Reno I would use any method open to me at the time. I would not send my minions in through your window in the middle of the night." That smile again. "I would rather do it personally. I would also prefer you awake so you knew who it was that plunged the knife into your chest." The smile lessened and she actually looked a little troubled for the first time. "This man has made it personal without even having to lift a single finger against me himself to make it so. I will not live having to look over my shoulder."

That existence would be a relief for Reno as well.  Turks weren't exactly their most comfortable in open combat either. But for them to go after an individual so persistently, the person will have more than deserved it, not just because he was a business opponent. Not unethical exactly, just stupid. If you had a chance to kill a most deserving candidate, you took it. But ceaselessly stalking them was something else. 

"So you bought me to a place where you knew Levinson's men would be hanging out." Probably smugglers after all. Little else remained around the docks this time of night except for the dockworkers, and they generally tended to stay around the more well lit areas up near the marina. "For what? To have an opening for conversation about them? You said you didn't want to fight the lackeys and you may have noticed than Levinson isn't among them."

She seemed pleased he had caught on so quickly. Sickeningly, he felt rather happy to see it 

"They have a run from Costa every third night. They get paid by local businesses to haul in goods without the usual dock charges. Those ten or so always come down to meet the boat on this dock that is only inspected twice the entire night. While Levinson has a headquarters, nobody lives there. It's a small place, much like your own that only has one man guarding it but a security system that I think would make even you think twice. All that is fine, it is not my target. As I said, nobody lives there, they have their own places. Levinson himself has an apartment on the outskirts of the city." Pause for effect. "Possibly the farthest one could possibly get in the city from the docks."

Reno could see where this was going. "So while the bulk of his men are tied up here, we hit his place and automatically buy ourselves at least twenty minutes before reinforcements arrive en masse, just in case he has the chance to raise the alarm. Great, we've accounted for ten. There could be five or more closer." Chances were that fifteen had been an optimistic guess anyway.

Destiny gave him her best, don't-be-an-idiot look. "I myself have accounted for two. One is dead. The other is probably still in a lot of pain."

"Three." Reno grinned. "Two dead. One wishes he was." Reno had broken both the man's legs in such a way he knew simple cure materia couldn't heal without mending it crooked. He really didn't try to kill them unless left no choice. Like he thought before, not unethical exactly, just stupid.  Large kill counts only increased the chance that you might be shot for revenge by any grieving asshole that had enough money to buy a gun and the balls to fire it. He might be a Turk, but he wasn't bullet proof. Usually immensely hurting a man was a good enough deterrence for most. But of course, he wouldn't go out of his way to keep the person alive if it meant too greater risk to his own health. Like he said, he wasn't stupid. 

"So this means we have a deal?"

"First thing is first." Reno said crossing his arms. "The Mog?"

Destiny looked ready to avoid his question again. But she must have realized it might make him refuse the offer. "Yes. I had some of my people have a play with it. I will see it fixed."

"No. I want the details of what was done no more. We can fix it." He trusted Destiny's people about as much as he did her. Which was to say, not at all.

"Agreed. Want to hear my plan?"

Reno nodded his ascent. "Go ahead."

"Three nights from now, you will scout Levinson's place out." She took a few folded sheets of paper out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Basic information." She explained. 

"Why me?" He questioned sharply.

"You are the Turk. While I'm not bad with stealth on occasion, my attempts to seem innocuous and blend in, never seem to work." She gave him a toothy grin at this. "Can't imagine why."

Reno could. He looked her over as he stuffed the paper into his back pocket. "Neither can I." He replied sarcastically. "But you can see why I'm a little paranoid."

"As I would be too." She allowed a little seriously. "But I swear to you, on my father, that I have no allegiance to Levinson. He will not know you are coming and you will be in no more danger than you don't already know of."

To seem so serious seemed most out of character for her. As far as Reno could tell, and he was usually very good at picking it, she wasn't lying.

"Three nights time." He agreed. "We meet on the fourth. Same time, same place."

She nodded, that predatory grin coming back onto her face. Her eyes positively gleamed. She really was something else.

"And two nights after that we rid the world of the scourge called Christian Levinson."

"One more thing." Reno added. "You owe me more than a fixed mog."

"Another favor?"

Reno grinned. 

***********

_            Notes: Well, how was that to kick off Episode Two? I have so much planned for this one. I practically have it all planned out in my devious little mind already. *giggles* I'll admit, Episode One wasn't as good as it could have been. I really ran into too many problems trying to work too much in where it didn't fit. But this one *rubs hands together* oh boy. _

_            You'll just have to keep reading._

_            AF_

            anime_fearie@excite.com

            All stories are found on the 70th Floor at Neo Midgar

            Where insanity is a real character.


	2. Part II

**A Different Kind Of Superhero –**

ADKOS Episode II : A Superhero's Destiny

_By AF_

**Part II.**

~

'Barf' - Cait. 

~

            Reeve was concentrating. 

            The table in front of him, formally Elena's dining table, was covered in blueprints and computer readouts. Bits of machinery and computers. And of course, the one thing he was concentrating on mostly for this morning, Reno's nightstick with its new re-charger.  Reno had willingly handed him the weapon yesterday after Reeve had expressed an interest in giving it a bit of a pep-up. Actually, Reno had suggested it and Reeve had finally conceded to the other man's constant whining. At first he hadn't the slightest idea what he might do to the weapon. It wasn't a Turk regular issue, well, anything. And so Gast had no notes on the thing. He wasn't even sure if Reno was aware of where he had picked up the unusual weapon anymore. But this morning he had woken up at around three AM. While he had been lying there, desperate to get back to sleep, an idea had struck him. Immediately he had gotten up, careful not to wake Elena, and come to see if he could put his new theory to good use. 

He had been vaguely aware of the sun starting to peek in through the windows next to him as he worked, but he paid it no attention, too wrapped up in what he was doing.

            He had settled into Elena's place fairly easily.  At first Reeve had held reservations about the idea for him to be living at her place for his stay in Junon. Sure they had been together for a little more than a year now, but they hadn't exactly been in close contact for that year. Every two or so months they managed to get together and spend a few days to a week pretending that they hadn't been apart at all. Playing the part of a normal couple. But the truth was that they really hadn't spent /that/ much time around each other.  A fact he constantly regretted. And something he was overly paranoid about whenever they /did/ get together. He always had the impression that spending so much time around him, she would begin to get sick of him or something. And this visit in particular. This time promised to be longer than usual depending on how the repairs were going on the Mog.

            He flicked an absent eye over the mess he had made on her table. While Elena wasn't an overtly clean person by nature, she enjoyed a certain organization to her untidy surroundings. Put pride into it even. Her place wasn't messy, but a little untidy. Reeve on the other hand, was a tidy person. Though exceptions to the rule were his workspaces, he couldn't understand how Elena didn't seem to mind the untidiness in the rest of the apartment. Sensing that it was a fight waiting to happen if he ever bought it up, he left the subject be and contented himself to subtly picking up the odd item and putting it back into it's respectful place. He knew she knew that he was doing this, but so far had not commented on it. He was happier with this arrangement by far.

            Hearing something moving out of the hall behind him, he had minimal time to prepare before two arms encircled his neck from behind and he felt a light kiss brush the skin just behind his left ear. 

            "Good morning." Elena's sleepy voice greeted in his ear. "You're up early."

            "Had an idea." He explained adding a last couple of notes to the paper in front of him then putting down what he was doing and catching a hold of her hands. "I didn't wake you when I got up did I?"

            "No. I didn't even hear you." She paused for a moment. "What're you doing?"

            He sighed. "Full-filling Reno's dream it would seem. I've been up all morning devising ways to improve your weapons."

            "And here I thought you said you would never do such a thing." She replied jokingly. "I thought you were here to pick up parts to fix the Mog."

            "I know." Then he smiled. "Of course if I do both it might mean you're stuck with me for a little bit longer."

            She stopped leaning over the back of him and came and sat down, much to Reeve's surprise and delight, straddling his lap, her back to the table. She was still wearing what she had gone to bed in last night, which was, because it was his first night in Junon, not a hell of a lot. A small black nightie in fact. She gave him a slow smile, "Oh I couldn't complain."

            He gave her a goofy smile in return and leant forward to kiss her neck. "Really?"

            "Really." She responded.

            "Barf." Said a third and new voice from across the table.

            Reeve grimaced and stopped what he was doing. Leaning to the side and looking past Elena Reeve frowned toward the offending voice.

            "What?" Cait asked innocently from where he had seemingly materialized,  standing on the chair on the opposite side of the table. "Didn't spoil the mood did I?"

            "It might when I strangle you." Reeve replied frankly. "And we weren't-"

            "So moody." Cait admonished. "And here I thought my innocent little eyes would be spared this depraved vision at least during daylight hours out in the middle of the apartment where most normal people would be eating breakfast. I'd hate to think how your future children will grow up with such horrible mental scars inflicted on them because their parents can't keep their pants on for more than a couple of hours."

            Elena blushed quite deeply at this. "Children?" She questioned faintly.

            "Well of course. With you two fucking like mad bunnies every minute of the day it's bound to happen sooner or later. What the hell would you expect?"

            Elena, attempting to rescue the rest of her hurt dignity got off her boyfriend's lap and tried to look indifferent.

Reeve glared at Cait quite angrily. 

***

            It had taken most of the day, and all it's daylight hours, but Reeve finally felt confident enough in his design to give it a test run.  The re-charger itself looked roughly like a short foot long black rod on a circular base topped off with a black sphere that sported two metal prongs on one side where it plugged into the nightstick. The original re-charger had been the sphere piece and nothing more and not really anything of a special design. The nightstick itself was theoretically capable of re-charging itself so long as the minimal amount of charge remained in the weapon. But that was a problem in itself. It was almost impossible to keep the minimal amount of charge in it, due to the fact that the user had no idea what the charge might be. The weapon itself didn't have a gauge to inform them. Reno had said that over time he'd gotten a feel for how much charge he had left before it would run out, but his judgement was never infallible. And once the charge was completely gone, you needed to plug in that previously charged little black sphere, and wait for the sphere to charge the weapon once again with the minimal amount of power then the nightstick could begin to charge on it's own once again. This whole process struck Reeve as being overly lengthy and bothersome.  After all, even when charging itself, the nightstick could take anything up to eighteen hours to reach maximum charge. 

            His first idea had been to make the weapon able to hold more of a charge. That way it would take longer for the nightstick to run out of power. His second idea had been to add a second reservoir of power to make it last up to twice as long still. The third idea had been to hasten the charging process and remake the re-charger designing it to hold as much energy as one of the reservoir's already in the nightstick. That way recharging would only mean changing over the power rather than building it back up from scratch. His fourth idea had been to create a couple of these reservoir's, make them as portable as bullets for a gun and just as interchangeable. Like batteries. His fifth and final idea he had decided on with a resigned, "Why the hell not?" Was; "Why not just do the lot?"

As it was, he had pretty much completed re-making the re-charger, but the nightstick itself was lying in the middle of his workspace with it's innards gutted and strewn across half the table. He hoped Reno didn't come around to visit Elena all that often. He could just imagine the blow up when the Turk saw his beloved nightstick literally in pieces. But he now figured the re-charger was ready to test. Switching the device on, he watched his computer screen for the reactions. He was glad he had designed a way to hook it up to his computer. It somehow seemed a little more scientific than the old way of waiting till the little green light came on the tell you that it was now charged. It reminded Reeve too much of a waffle iron. 

So far the readouts looked positive. The charger was charging it's own store fairly rapidly. Almost five times faster than previously. Once it was charged, hopefully one could remove the charged 'battery' from within the stem and insert it into what he hoped would become an empty chamber within the nightstick. Either that or hook the nightstick up to charge on its own. Well so the theory went. The only drawback Reeve could ascertain came from the original charger. The black sphere. Because it was handling that much more power at an increased rate, Reeve found it to become mildly electrified when turned on. A minor set back. He'd just have to remember to warn Reno away from touching it till he could insulate it properly. /If/ he could insulate it properly.

            With a shrug, Reeve turned away from his work and stretched. Looking at his watch he saw that it was almost six. Elena would be getting home from work soon and he'd wanted to have dinner ready for her. A nice gesture to cool any bad feelings about this morning's gaff. True it hadn't bee his fault. But Cait was his responsibility. He'd wanted to have a talk to Cait about minding his manners, but so far, the little robot had been able to avoid his irate master. Quite a feat in the little apartment. Then Reeve had become engrossed in his work.

            He waited until Reeve had wandered, yawning, toward the kitchen before making his move. Luckily for him, Reeve hadn't spotted him at all while working, being so engrossed in his work as he was. If he had bothered to look to his left and down slightly, he might have noticed the two green glowing eyes and the furry white nose poking out from between the curtains. Thankfully he had not. And now Cait was free to play. 

            Jumping up onto the chair that Reeve had vacated not a minute beforehand, Cait peered kitchen ways and listened. He could hear the sounds of pots being shifted around and someone sorting through the pantry. Reeve didn't sound like he'd be coming back out very soon. 

            With a decidedly evil grin, Cait leapt up onto the table and inspected Reeve's work. It all looked so very interesting. Especially that humming ball-e-rod thing next to the computer…

            Reeve heard the door to the apartment open and close and smiled. There was a few moments of rustling before Elena herself came into the kitchen giving the air a satisfied sniff. 

            "That smells good." She commented coming up to look at the contents of the pot Reeve was stirring and the one simmering beside it. "Pasta?"

            "Seafood Pasta with real prawns and Mariner sauce." Reeve replied proudly.

            "Ahhh. Sounds…well very seafoody."

            "Just taking advantage of living in a port town is all."

            Elena gave him a condescending smile. "I see. And you really think that Junon seafood would be a delicacy?" 

            Reeve obviously hadn't thought of it quite that way before. The water around Junon was notoriously polluted. He eyed the pot of sauce a little less surely.

            Elena merely laughed and put an arm around his waist. "Cheer up. I'm sure it'll taste fabulous." She gave him a light peck on the side of his still frowning face. "You're quite the cook you know." She commented taking her arm away and going to the fridge for a bottle of wine. She leant her back against the counter and went about opening it. "A rare catch. Tidy, considerate, can cook," She smiled, "amongst other things. I could get used to this."

            "Really?" He asked.

            And as was becoming something of a habit between them she responded, "Really."

            In retrospect, it was at this point that Reeve felt the night could have gone a whole lot better. From the direction of the dining room came the weirdest crackling sound accompanied by such a loud, shocked yowl it made Elena drop the bottle of wine she was carrying where it smashed onto the tiles at her feet. Unfortunately, part of that rustling earlier had been Elena putting down her bag, taking off her jacket and of course, her work shoes. Reeve, just as shocked by the noise, was far more distracted by the gasp of pain made by Elena as the shattered glass settled around her bare feet. Already some of the light tiles were flecked with red. 

            "Gods, Elena! Are you okay?" Reeve asked. He hunkered down to take a look at her cut feet.

            "Not too bad considering." She answered a little strained. "Could have been worse. What /was/ that noise?"

            Reeve was busy inspecting the damage and didn't really hear the question at first. The tops of her feet were nicked a little here and there. There were a couple of areas on the sides were shiny glass poked her. Eventually though he heard her question. It didn't take him long to figure it out.

            "Cait!" He bellowed straightening up and stalking off toward the dining room. The table was only a little disheveled, some papers were on the floor, but apart from that the room seemed intact enough. 

However, clinging to the wall across the room, all sixteen claws sunk into the plaster hung Cait with this shocked look on his face. He was smoking slightly. He turned his wide eyes toward Reeve.

            "It-It's ha-ar-d t-to t-tell," He stuttered, "Bu-bu-but I th-think I-I enjo-oyed th-that."

***

            It was late. Reno didn't want visitors. He was happy. He was half-drunk. He was dressed only in his boxers. And the women's mud-wrestling championships were about to come on his favorite channel. He was vaguely wondering whether it would be all that impolite to strangle whoever it was at the door. After much deliberation in which he sat watching the opening credits featuring the stats of the two contestants, he decided that no, it wasn't impolite. And anyone that knew him should bloody well know better than to make a social call at such a vital moment in his life.

            With his eyes still glued to the screen, he walked over to his door backwards and opened it. Without looking he began to reach toward where he figured the person's neck ought to be. He felt nothing but air. Puzzled, he spared his open door a short glance. Nothing. Then he looked down. Cait was standing on his doorstep a saddened expression on his face holding his small bag with the cow on it protectively in front of him. A small blue stuffed chocobo was clamped securely under one arm. As Reno watched he made to blow his nose noisily on a white handkerchief. Which was silly really, Reno thought, robots don't need to blow their noses.

            "What're you-?"

            "Elena and Reeve kicked me out. They told me to come stay with you.  Can I Reno?" The voice was pitiful. And to add to the scene he blew his nose again and wiped at dry eyes.

            "Uh, sure. Come on in."

            The effect was immediate. He threw the handkerchief over his shoulder, grinned and said, "Thanks!" 

            He walked in past the confused Reno who cocked his head slightly to the side before asking. "What was with the handkerchief and all that? I thought one of them must be dead."

            "Oh that?" Cait asked absently, sitting down on Reno's couch and flinging his bag off in the direction of the coffee table. It missed. "That was for guilt and to make you say yes. It was the only way I was getting in here on championship night after all. Did you think I was stupid?"

            Reno rolled his eyes and shut the door. "No, but I sure am."

*******

            They were kissing. 

Spending half the night picking bits of glass out of her feet, they had eventually got around to having a quiet dinner. Absent Cait. To be honest they had barely got around to finishing the dinner. Now they were tumbling off in the direction of the bedroom, kissing, dragging clothes off and generally being noisy. 

Finally it seemed the endless struggle to the bedroom was at an end as they moved in through the door and collapsed onto the bed, barely taking the time to come up for air. Clothes went on the floor or wherever they were flung. Hands roved over bare skin eliciting moans and murmurs of love. 

And just when Elena thought it was either now or burst, Reeve stopped. He got this thoughtful kind of look on his face as he stared at a seemingly random spot just over her shoulder. Eventually he smiled and exclaimed, "That's it!"

Half senseless from the interruption she looked up at him genuinely mystified and asked, "What's it?"

He gave her an excited little-boy-just-found-a-free-fireworks-shop kind of look and beamed. "This idea I've been having all day. I didn't know how it could work. The idea, it just came."

There weren't words to express what Elena was feeling at this point. "At least something did."

He shook his head, not hearing her. "I've got to test this."

Both her eyebrows shot up as he moved away from her. "What? Now?"

"Well yeah. Can't take the chance of forgetting it." He gave her a quick kiss. "I'll be back in a moment."

Elena closed her eyes and shook her head, certain that when she opened them he wont have just walked out of the room to go tinker with weapons and that she had just imagined it. When she opened them he was still gone.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me! You /are/ a man aren't you?!"

No doubt her voice could be heard where he was. But it was hard to tell if he heard her at all with Reeve's unawareness of the world while in inventor land. She tried again.

"If you aren't back here in five minutes I'm starting without you!" 

Since that got no reaction she could safely say he hadn't heard her at all. 

She lay her head back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling. She waited. Then finally, after about twenty minutes, she rolled over, tugged the covers up around her and tried to go to sleep.

***********

"I just don't understand what's wrong." Elena complained from her place walking alongside Rude. "One minute everything was going fine, the next, he was gone."

From a few meters ahead Reno booted himself up far enough to peak over the top of a fence before dropping back down to the ground. They had been walking up this entire street doing that. Well Reno had been, Rude had been watching and Elena had been talking.

"You know El, this shit is like hearing about your parent's sex life. You're grossing me out." Reno complained.

"I wouldn't think Reeve wants you to share this." Rude put in.

Elena ignored them both. "But I mean, he's a guy right? What guy walks out on an opportunity for sex?" She huffed. "I mean would either of you?"

"With you?" Reno asked boosting himself up on the next fence.

She frowned. "I didn't necessarily mean me. I just meant in general."

"Depends."

"On what exactly?"

"On how much I liked the girl I suppose." Reno answered distractedly. "I remember this one girl back in Midgar. Heidigar's secretary before the last one. You remember her Rude?" 

Rude was making subtle slashing motions with his hands warding Reno off continuing. Reno didn't see and continued. 

"Wow man. It wasn't that she was ugly or anything. She was just so…persistent. And annoying. You couldn't get the woman to shut up for ten minutes. Personally if caught in a sexual situation with her, I would have knawed off my right leg with my own teeth if I though it might aid my escaping. You just got so sick of-"

Reno's monologue was interrupted by an empty soft drink can impacting with the back of his head. Rude made no hint of trying to hide who had thrown it. "Reno, shut the hell up." He advised.

It was too late, the damage had already been done. Elena looked about as happy as a kicked puppy. Realizing what he had said, Reno winced. "El, I didn't mean that Reeve-"

"Well he might be." She interupted. "All he seems interested in is fixing the Mog and doing up Reno's nightstick. It's all he seems to think about."

Reno stopped dead in his tracks and got this misty eyed look. "My nightstick? He left sex with you for that? I feel touched."

"Reno I'm serious!"

Reno shrugged. "So am I. I love that weapon."

"It's just Reeve's way." Rude soothed. "You know what he's like. He's just deidicated to his work, that's all."

Elena sighed. "I know. But I could still hope I have a better priority on his dedication list than inanimate objects."

"Hey! What're you callin' inanimate? That weapon has personality El. It's not its fault Reeve's got screwed up ideals. I want an apology."

"Bite me, Reno." Elena replied.

Reno crossed his arms over his chest and thought it over for a while. "Well that's a start. But I want a proper apology tomorrow."

Elena smiled faintly. And before she could cover it up quickly enough, Reno saw it.

"Ah-ha! I made you smile. You can't really believe all that shit your saying and think Reeve is sick of you. Not if I can still cheer you up."

"Reno you could liven up Shiva up in a sauner." Elena returned. Then, "Maybe your right. I'm probably worrying about it for nothing."

Reno sidled alongside Elena and threw a companionable arm around her shoulder. "Of course I am. I'm always right. And if he does it again, you can toss him out. That'll teach him."

Elena rolled her eyes. "I don't think it'll come to that."

***

It wasn't as if Elena wasn't making the effort. 

She had called home earlier and told Reeve that she would bring home a pizza so he would have more time to work on his projects. Her motive for this being that perhaps he might have had enough of working for that day to not want to think about it later in the evening. Not only that, but she had bought an assortment of candles, bubble baths, salts and oils intended as desert. At least this way, if he left what she had in store for him to go back to his work, she would know well and truly where she stood. Also perhaps how sane he might be, she added in her mind with a wicked grin.

Balancing the shopping bag on her hip, she opened her apartment door just in time to hear a worrying sizzle, and small crackle and a very loud swear word.

Practically dropping the bag on the floor, she rushed toward the sounds that were emanating from the dining room. Not in her wildest thoughts could she imagine happening what was happening now. Her dining room was on fire. Well not all of it was, just the curtains by the window and the potted plant in the corner. Elena stood stock still in the doorway, her mouth gaping, unable to move a muscle. Reeve didn't notice her as he rushed around the room trying to put the fires out. It took him a good ten or so minutes but eventually he got the blaze under control. By that time the dining room and most of the apartment was clogged with smoke. The curtains were still smoldering, and her beloved pot plant Clancy was a charred mess. She was aware of Reeve throwing open a window in an effort to vent some of the smoke, but by then the damage was already done. She would be smelling it for the next month. She must have let out a strangled gasp, because Reeve whirled around to face her and winced.

Elena moved over to Clancy and uselessly tried putting the plant back into place and trying not to cough. 

"I'm really sorry Elena." She felt a hand pat her shoulder comfortingly. "I guess the nightstick works." Reeve offered weakly. "If that's any consolation."

***

Cait clawed his way up the couch and threw himself across Reno's lap almost spilling the latter's beer bottle. 

"Get out of it Cait." Reno told him, pushing the little robot off his lap and onto the floor. Cait stayed down there for a good few minutes in silence before Reno felt four sharp metal points puncture his foot. "Fuck." He tried lifting both his feet off the ground and laying them across the coffee table in order to get them away from the little demon on the floor but it didn't work. Cait was attatached to his right foot. Cait just glared at Reno from his position clamped onto Reno's foot and stared the Turk down.

"Fine!" Reno relented throwing up his hands. "But only this once."

With a beaming smile Cait relinquished Reno's foot and jumped off the coffee table, scurrying off. A few moments later he reappeared wearing one of Reno's Hawaiian shirts and the Turk's sunglasses perched awkwardly on his head. The shirt was way too big and caused Cait to trip over it more often than not, but the grin told Reno that Cait was at least happy.

"Feel better?" He asked Cait as the robot crawled up to sit beside Reno and watch T.V. with him.

"Much."

"That's good," Reno replied never taking his eyes off the television screen. "'Cause you look like a dork."

A knock interrupted their mutally silent television watching not ten minutes later. Heaving a great sigh Reno pushed himself to his feet and wandered over to answer the door. When he opened it, he merely shook his head and stepped aside to let his guest in. 

"I expected as much." Reno told him, shutting the door.

His guest didn't look so sure. "Well, you might have warned me." Reeve replied dumping his bag down by the door.

Cait's head appeared over the back of the sofa, he smiled when he saw Reeve. "Hey, cool! We're both outcasts! Did you scratch Elena's walls up too?"

Reno smoothly interrupted before a response could be made. "Please don't answer that. I don't want to be left pondering your response if it's an affirmative." To Cait he ordered, "Get off my sofa and go get Reeve a beer. No doubt he needs it."

Cait opened his mouth to protest, but Reno merely tugged at his shirt collar, reminding Cait about what he was wearing. Grumbling, Cait hopped off the sofa and padded into the kitchen as Reeve explained to Reno what had happened.

"So, El dumped you huh?" Reno asked as glibly as he could as dumped himself into his sofa, have facing Reeve sitting dejectedly on the other end.

            "She didn't /dump/ me," Reeve was quick to reply. "We're just not used to living together that's all. She's used to going to work at all hours and so am I. I enjoy tidy spaces and she enjoys organized mess. I'm used to, well," Reeve sighed in a resigned fashion. "Blowing up parts of my workspace. Elena has an aversion to parts of her apartment being on fire." Again that sigh as Cait jogged back in struggling with the two bottles of beer Reno had ordered him off to find. He handed one up to Reeve just as Reeve added, "I deserved to get kicked out didn't I?"

            Reno nodded, taking his own bottle off Cait and watching as the little robot looked forlornly up at Reeve. "Most probably."

            "I suppose you would have the same aversion?"

            "My landlord might," Reno admitted. "But I think we can work something out. Make you a space in the offices downtown. We own that building so there's no so many hassles."

            "Your offices?" Reeve suddenly looked even more weary. "Reno, I told you; I'm not a Turk."

            Reno went on confidently. "There's a space free that's bigger that your lab in Icicle Village."

            Reno had known exactly what to say. Don't push the Turk thing, just offer him the space. Any designer would drool at the thought of gaining more space for their work, especially with the kinds of resources the Turks could provide.

            "Can't hurt to at least look at it I suppose." Reeve conceded eventually.

            "Good for you." Reno stated, trying not to sound enthusiastic. "And don't worry about El, she's just blowing off steam. She'll get over it."

            Cait rolled his eyes at Reno'd glib attitude and wandered closer to the television, laying himself down in front of it.

            "Will she?" Reeve asked sadly. "I can see why she might be upset. But it isn't like it's over things that can be easily apologised for. I was just being me."

            Reno rolled his eyes and muttered, "No wonder your sex life at Shinra was non-existant."

            "What?"

            Loudly Reno continued, "Look these are things that can be overcome. Just remember to keep Cait on a leash."

            "I heard that!" Cait interrupted. 

            Reno ignored him. "Keep a notebook handy at all times and don't bring your work home from the office. Or at least don't test them in her living room and I'm sure things'll return to normal."

            "You think so?" Reeve asked hopefully.

            "You love each other, you'll get through it. Trust me. El wouldn't have put up with you otherwise."

            Reeve spent some time thinking this over. Ultimately he looked more relieved as he stood. 

            "Thanks, Reno. I needed the pep-talk."

            Reno smiled. "Anything I can do to get my favorite couple back together. And you out of my apartment." He added with a twist to the smile.

            "Har, har." Reeve said sarcastically. "I think I'm off to bed. It's been a big night."

            "You'll have to be up by seven if you want to see that place!" Reno called after him as Reeve disappeared down the hall.

            When he was out of earshot, after they'd both heard the sound of the guest bedroom door bump shut, Cait turned from the television to look at Reno. 

            "Why all the advice? You hate all that heavy couple junk."

            Reno rubbed his neck and leant back on the sofa, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "It's different with those two." He admitted. "They deserve to be happy."

            "Since when have you gone all pro true-love on me?" Cait asked accusingly. "Just last week you were tryna convince me that love was an affliction similar to Ebola. It hits fast, your insides get turned to mush, then abruptly, there's intense pain and it all ends."

            Reno smiled at the reminder. "Since when have /you/ been so against love? Correct me if I'm wrong O mighty cupid, but you were the one insisting on getting them together in the first place."

            Cait turned back to the T.V. with a scowl. "I thought Reeve could do with a decent fuck. I didn't intend for this pseudo marriage bullshit. Frankly it's sickening and not at all fun."

            Reno's smile widened. "So, the truth is revealed. Least now I know why you were being such an evil little bastard enough to get kicked out."

            "I don't care what you think," Cait replied stubbornly. "It's not true."

            "You're jealous."

            Cait's head whipped back around to face Reno. "Am not!"

            "Are too. Back when you were first getting your personality you liked Elena. You said she was interesting and fun and the only one that didn't treat you like a little kid. But now you can't hardly say a nice word about her."

            Cait puffed out his cheeks. "I'm /not/ jealous. What you're implying is weird and disgusting."

            "I didn't mean it like that. I meant that you were jealous of the attention. Nowadays when we get together Reeve's either working or with El. You feel left out."

            His cheeks deflated and he started chewing his lip. "I can't help it!" He admitted in a small voice. "I try ignoring it and spending more time with you or Rude, but it's not the same. You guys are my friends. But Reeve is…well…my creator. My…"

            "Your father." Reno supplied.

            "Yeah." Cait agreed warming to the notion. "Yeah exactly."

            Reno was about to ruin it for him though. "I said that because you're acting like a spoilt little kid. You've got to understand that Reeve's human, he needs human things. One of those things happens to be human companionship."

            "Is that all? But if it's human interaction, why not just have friends then? You be Reeve's friend, it isn't likely to piss me off as much."

            Reno's mouth twisted strangely. "That's not quite what the human interaction I meant Cait. At least I hope that's not what /you/ mean."

            "Now you're talking about sex."

            "So long as that wasn't what we were talking about before."

            "My mind isn't totally like yours Reno. I just meant companionship. But so what about sex? Doesn't mean a person has to have the icky relationship stuff does it? He could live without that. You do."

            "I'm different."

            "Why?"

            "Because I'm a twenty six year old 'boy'. Who will soon become a thrity year old 'boy'. One day I might even live to be a seventy year old 'boy'. A very wise woman told me that once. Look, I tried the whole relationship trip once. It doesn't flourish lemme tell you. With Reeve and El it's different. Even after months spent apart, evil robotic obnoxious monsters and personality clashes, they still love each other. And a sad, sadistic, mushy part of my otherwise small black heart gets a kick out of seeing them happy. Do you understand?"

            "Kind of." Cait replied eventually. "Doesn't mean I have to like it though."

            "Yes it does." Reno persisted. "'Cause if you don't make the effort it could fuck it all up. It's not El's fault you're jealous. And they only see each other every few months. I suggest you apologize and lay off being a little shit to them. You can be surly, just don't take it out on them."

            Cait didn't look happy. "Fine. I'll try."

            "Thank you."

            Cait spent a few moments staring at the carpet before he curiously raised his eyes back to Reno.

            "Hey, Reno?"

            "Yeah?"

            "Who was the 'wise woman'?"

            Reno sighed. "Don't ask questions you already know the answer to."

            "I thought as much." Cait turned back to watch television. Under his breath he muttered, "Sadistic indeed."

****

            _Notes: hrm, well, this chapter didn't have much going in the way of plot. Well maybe some secondary plot for the characters that's ongoing throughout the series. Never fear though, getting back to the original plot next chapter with Levinson and Destiny and, hopefully, Aimi as well. *grins* see you then._

_            Added: Sorry about the wait. Problems, problems. This had been finished more than two weeks ago, so at least I wasn't being lazy. The computer ate the file. *sigh*_

_Reviews are tax-deductable_

_            AF_

_anime_fearie@excite.com_

_ADKOS stories and all their madness can be found on the 70th Floor at Neo Midgar_

__

_Fights, rambles, stories, links, mailing lists and polls._


	3. Part III

**A Different Kind Of Superhero –**

ADKOS Episode II : A Superhero's Destiny

_By AF_

**Part II.**

**_By AF & Ace._**

*

_'Don't be chivalrous, it doesn't impress me.'_

_~ Destiny Ryder_

*

            "You didn't."

            No question. A pure statement of disbelief on Reno's part. Hollow words that Reno desperately hoped were wrong. But they weren't. He could see that for himself. He just didn't want to believe it could be true. That in the relatively small amount of time he'd been gone, things could go so drastically wrong for him.

            "I didn't what?" asked a bewildered Reeve looking up from the blue screen of his computer in the dining room.

            Reno's mouth fell open when Reeve didn't seem to understand the obvious answer.

            "You cleaned!" Reno answered distraught.

            Reeve's brow furrowed. "Not really. I just picked a few things up."

            "Picked a few things up! There's nothing left!"

            To Reno the apartment looked barren. The comforts of the familiar had been taken away in a mere four hours.

            "No. There's just less trash. There are certain health warnings I think you might've been in violation of."

            "I don't care! You've totally fucked up my style. I hope you realize that."

            "Please. I threw out a couple of old pizza boxes and beer bottles. Some of which I think had started to grow whole new organisms of their own."

            "And now you've murdered them. I hope you're happy."

            "Murdered?"

            "Yeah well, they all had names." With that confession Reno came into his apartment properly and kicked closed the door. "I bet you never dared clean Elena's apartment."

            "Not really. She would've really hated that."

            "And you think I don't?"

            Reeve smiled here. "Yeah well, I'm not in love with you Reno. I couldn't care less if you were sore at me."

            "It's still /my/ apartment you know. And you're wearing your welcome pretty thin. Why don't you go bug the other clean freak? Rude would be overjoyed there's another bastard like him out there."

            Reeve rolled his eyes. "I'm not a clean freak, I just don't like it when the week old, half eaten kebabs start staring back, that's all."

            "They had personality." Reno insisted stubbornly. 

            "Yes, they did. More personalities than Cait I suspect."

            "You really never got laid before you were thirty did you."

            "Oh, grow up."

            "Blow me."

            Something beeped.

            Silence.

            Reno wasn't sure what had beeped. Usually unknown beeps weren't healthy to be around. But Reeve seemed perfectly at ease with the beep, so Reno didn't bother panicking. 

            "Cooking something?"

            "No. You're Nightstick finished recharging."

            For the first time since Reno had gotten home, he had reason to look happy. "You're still working on that?"

            "No. I've finished actually. You can go test it if you'd like." Reeve smiled smugly. "Still annoyed at me?"

            "Are you kidding me? If it works like you said it would, I'm tempted to give you a big sloppy one."

            "I'd be more grateful if you didn't."

            "Just let me go and slip into something more comfortable."

            Reno left a frowning Reeve in his dining room while he went off to his room to get changed out of his work uniform. When he came back into the room, Reeve looked up from a small cylindrical object he was fiddling with and eyed Reno's clothing.

            "Who died?"

            "Nobody. Since when was it surprising for me to where black? I'm going out, alright mom?" Reno scooted one of the chairs back from the table, turned it around and sat on it backwards. "Where's Cait?"

            "Stalking the rooftop as far as I know. Is it okay for him to be up there?" Reeve asked standing up and leaning across the table to grab the Nightstick.

            "I told him it was okay. Nobody ever goes up there. 'Sides, he's probably not up there anyway." Reno shrugged. "He's been dragging ropes and things up there for the past two days, says he's making a pathway for himself over the rooftops."

            Reeve stopped, mid-motion and shot Reno a worrying glance. "That's probably not a good idea. Junon isn't like the Village."

            "No shit. I don't see what harm it could do. Who'll see him? You should let him explore, get it out of his system."

            "You're probably right." Reeve conceded snatching up the nightstick and sitting down again. "But I think I better lay down some ground rules when he gets back."

            Reeve pushed a black button on the end of the weapon causing the butt end of the Nightstick to slide down, exposing the inner workings. Reeve inspected it for a moment. Apparently satisfied that all was well, he pushed it back up where it clicked into place. After that he grabbed the handle in one hand, the upper section in the other and twisted them in opposite directions. 

            This part of the display was new. Naturally his weapon didn't exactly do that before. It certainly didn't open a three and a half inch slit in the side exposing a dull glowing light inside. Reno watched entranced as Reeve pushed a part of the glowing something and popped it out. The glowing thing was a cylinder, similar to what Reeve had been playing with earlier. It was slightly smaller than the opening in the Nightstick, and when removed, another cylinder inside the tube of the weapon dropped down to take the removed one's place. Reeve took that one out as well."

            "Well fuck me," Reno said impressed. "Batteries."

            "Pretty much. But don't expect to buy these down at the corner stall. They cost a tiny fortune to replicate so whatever you do, don't lose them." Reeve handed one to Reno for him to take a look.

            Reno turned it over in his hands. "How do they work?"

            "Just like batteries. You slot them into this place here," Reeve indicated to the opening the section and slotting one of them back in to show Reno how it was done. He took the other one back from Reno and put that in as well. "Then twist to close." He finished, demonstrating. "Your Nightstick will last more than five times more than it used to. But here," Reeve leant across the table to show Reno what he was pointing at. A small red button with a clear plastic covering sat in amongst the usual three operational buttons near the handgrip. "Flip open the covering and keep the button depressed and it will discharge a larger volt of electricity when you next activate it. The longer you hold down the button, the larger the discharge. And here is a gauge telling you how much charge is left in both additional reservoirs. When that runs down you can change the 'batteries' or use it like normal till you run the last of the power out of it. You've got two spare of those batteries to carry around."

            He handed the weapon for Reno to look over. "What're these?"  He asked gazing on some smooth grooves running the entirety of the weapon. They hadn't been there before.

            "Something I'm working on." Reeve answered mysteriously.

            "You're not finished?" Reno asked surprised.

            "Sort of. You can take it back for now though. I have more thinking to do. That and I didn't exactly come all the way down here to fix your Nightstick. I have other things to do."

            "Well, I'm happy you did as much as this. It'll be like Ramuh's fucking Staff as it is!"

            "Not quite." Reeve smiled. "That's what I have to think about. Just remember to take it on a test run, feel it out. I couldn't do much of a test today in fear of setting something else on fire. Oh and you'll still have to use that little sphere to charge the existing power source. And be careful when you do, I've designed it to work a little faster and it tends to be a little electrified. Just don't touch it. You have to charge the batteries up inside the weapon for now, but I'll work on that."

            Reno spent the next few moments smiling dreamily at his re-vamped weapon.

            "You're a gem, Reeve. Clean anything you want."

            Reeve just rolled his eyes. 

            Eventually Reno put the weapon safely on the table, sighing at its loss from his loving hands. 

            "So, did you like your office?"

            Reeve was slightly taken back by the suddenly question and it took him a few moments to form an answer. "/My/ office? No, no. It's just – "

            Reno waved away the evitable 'I'm not a Turk' speech and interrupted. "The space I showed you then. You want it?"

            "I suppose. If you aren't using it for anything else that is."

            "Not really." Reno replied getting to his feet and stretching a little. "It's a pretty big building for just the three of us. But I suppose this means we're gonna have to get some sort of security system up and going if you're gonna be leaving high-tech shit around in there. Don't suppose you feel like picking up the contract for that one do you?"

            "A security system?" Reeve asked surprised. "I wouldn't know where to start."

            "Well I can help with that. You might say I've had some experience with those sorts of systems. I just don't have the know how to put one together," Reno grinned. "Just how to get past them. Better yet, Cait should know all that stuff. It'd be better if you used him instead."

            "Why?"

            "Let's just say that I want it to be a surprise." Reno checked his watch. "Fuck, late."

            "Should I ask where you're going?"

            "Scavenger hunt."

            Reeve didn't look impressed by the mystic answer, or surprised. "Is this something I should have prepped your suit for?"

            "And what makes you think this has got anything to do with business?"

            Reeve motioned toward Reno's clothes as if it were obvious.

            "Nothing wrong with wearing all black, it's my favorite color. Besides, this is mostly pleasure, not business." Reno leaned over the table and grabbed his Nightstick. 

            "So why are you taking that with you?"

            "Man, since you've had it, it's been like I've been missing an appendage. I always carry it. And you never know when someone else feels like they want to do a little business with you themselves. Same reason I almost always carry my gun."

            "I'll pretend I understand." Reeve decided.

            "Good option. Catch you later."

***

            Usually the problem with trying to look inconspicuous was that you looked so casual, so at home in your surroundings that you ended up looking like the most suspicious person on the street. In a city like Junon, a person that didn't look paranoid was obviously not acting naturally.

            Reno was giving /everyone/ sideways glances. And lucky for him, he couldn't have looked casual if he tried. 

            People were trying to kill him. 

            And not just /any/ people. Skilled people. 

            Normally Reno wouldn't have really cared. Lots of people tried to have him done away with and not all of them because he was a Turk. And obviously, none had succeeded yet. He was a hard man to kill. Overtly suspicious, well trained and well armed. True all it would take would be a gun fired from a distance to end his life, nobody had yet caught onto the fact that there were easier ways to kill a Turk than going into a one on one battle with him. At least his reputation gave him some consolations on that point. Nobody ever wanted to anonymously assassinate him and everybody wanted him to know exactly who is was who had killed him. They threatened him to his face, challenged him to his face, and fought with him face to face. Nobody had ever really considered plunging a knife into his back or snipering him from a distance. If they had, Reno would have been dead a very long time ago. One thing was for sure; people with grudges were stupid.

            These latest group of threats weren't grudge killers. They were mercenaries hired with the specific orders to deliver Reno's head to their employer, attached or otherwise. And as far as Reno was concerned, that was just bad form. He'd come closer to death more times in the past couple of months than he ever had in all his years at Shinra and frankly it was giving him the shits. He had no respect for people that couldn't do their own dirty work. 

            And besides that, it was insulting.

            Reno guessed that that was the ultimate reason he found himself on the other side of town late at night looking for a man who wanted him dead. 

            He stood across the street in the shadow of a doorway, staring across the street at a rather nice looking house. He'd been there for about twenty minutes, hoping that the lone occupant would leave so he might have a chance to snoop. So far he'd had no luck. Levinson looked set for the night.

            But things were looking up; it appeared that he was alone. Knowing this, Reno was awfully tempted to make a hit on the house tonight. Destiny had been right about wanting to wait till his various comrades would be out of calling distance before they made their attack. But Destiny was working on the reasoning that the man would even have a chance to call for help. Turks didn't usually go around busting in through the front doors screaming war cries and guns blazing. Turks snuck in, cut off all chances at help and escape then dealt with things in their own good time. And looking at the building now, Reno was having a hard time fighting off the temptation to do just that. Whatever security, alarms or whatever the guy might have would be moot if Reno could sneak past it and put a knife to the upstart's throat.

            Reno decided to get a closer look.

*

            Reeve leant back in his chair and rubbed his gritty eyes with his fingertips. 

            "This is ridiculous."

            He just couldn't work out what the problem might be.

            Reno had said he'd be able to get the information out of Destiny but so far, he'd been able to get nothing. Soon, Reno had assured him. Well, in the meantime the Mog would have to remain switched off and utterly unusable.

            It wasn't as if they needed the thing up and running for some urgent purpose or anything. Reeve just found the whole puzzle very annoying. Why they had tampered with the thing's programming at all was a mystery in itself.

            Reeve got to his feet irritably and stalked off toward the kitchen to make himself a coffee. 

            Busy in Reno's tiny kitchen, Reeve almost missed the noise coming from somewhere beyond the kitchen doorway. Almost, but not entirely. Working as late as he had, he hadn't been too bothered turning on too many lights around the apartment and the space just beyond the doorway was partially hidden in semi-gloom. Reeve rolled his eyes.

            "Nice try, Cait. I heard you. You're getting sloppy. I'll fix your night vision tomorrow if you'd like."

            Curiously, this evoked no answer. 

            Leaving the kettle to boil, Reeve pushed himself away from the counter and leaned out of the kitchen doorway.

            "Cait, what-"

            His shirt collar was grabbed roughly and pulled. Off balance and obviously not expecting the attack, Reeve was pulled forward, spun and slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the door. A small 'oof' escaped him as a bit of his breath was knocked from his body but he was more shocked than hurt. A face loomed out of the semi-darkness in front of him.

            "Oh, crap."

            Destiny gave him a slow smile. "Would it help if I meowed?"

            Reeve went to shove her away but she readjusted her grip and pushed him back again. Reeve felt a cool, sharp edge press up against his throat.

            "Uh-uh, don't move. I wouldn't want to have an accident." She admonished. "I much prefer deliberate violence, don't you?"

            Reeve tried to examine his alternatives. There weren't many. He was here alone with minimal chance of rescue. He didn't know when Reno was getting back and he had no idea where Cait might be. He'd been gone all day just about and didn't need to be recharged until tomorrow. That gave Reeve some limited options. On his own, unarmed against Destiny, he was severely in trouble.

            "What –?"

            "Am I doing here?" Destiny asked finishing Reeve's question. "Well the answer to that is quite interesting. You see, I've had this theory. Part of my problem with the Turks is their ability to get their hands on some quite innovative pieces of technology. At first I thought it might have been plundered from the remnants of Shinra. How surprised was I to find out that they had their own pet engineer? It led me to further wonder how difficult I would find competing with the Turks if their little engineer suddenly could no longer assist them anymore. It certainly is an interesting question, no?"

            Reeve paled. She was going to kill him.

            "No need to answer." Destiny assured him. "I can tell you're having some trouble digesting that." She tilted her head slightly and made a show of looking him over a little. "I have to admit how lucky I am that you yourself are not a real Turk. Makes my job a hell of a lot easier. Going toe to toe with a Turk isn't quite as fun when the certainty of wining is so clearly dubious. But you," She gave him a toothy grin. "Aren't exactly what I might call a challenge now are you?"

            Reeve swallowed a few times. "Then how come I'm suddenly such a threat?"

            Here she leaned in closer to him. "Haven't you been paying attention? You aren't a Turk in the trained fighter type of way, but so long as you are helping them I wouldn't exactly say you weren't some type of Turk either. In fact, you have to be one of the most important people in the Turks. Without you making their little toys for them, they wouldn't be half the threat I've come to know them as. Haven't you ever wondered why they insist on keeping you around? It certainly isn't because of your keen fighting skills or your winning charm. Though," she added as she slowly bought her eyes back up to his face, "I can see that that blond bitch might have some ulterior motives for keeping you around."

            "Don't you dare call – "

            Destiny rolled her eyes, took a step back and planted a solid fist into his stomach folding him over. She followed it up by slammed the pommel of her knife into the back of his head. Reeve went down onto one knee and Destiny bought her own knee up into his face. Reeve fell backward onto the carpet.

            "Don't be chivalrous. It doesn't impress me."

*

            As far as Reno could tell, there wasn't anything particularly interesting about the building. 

            Despite what Destiny had told him, he'd imagined some kind of impregnable fortress designed to keep even the most cunning of assassins away. However, all Reno could see was a nice personal dwelling kept impressively neat with perhaps some bizarre but unflattering Wutaian modifications. The only security that he could see involved a badly timed security camera by the front door and an surly owl nesting in the guttering above the back door. 

            Needless to say, he was having a hard time remembering just why he needed to wait and report back to Destiny at all. One quick little foray into the building might end his problems tonight, quietly and without too much more fuss.

            Reno found his hand had maneuvered a window half up before he even realized what he was doing. But he didn't stop himself either. It wouldn't hurt to get an even closer look now would it?

*

            "Oh good, you didn't pass out."

            Reeve groaned.

            Destiny was crouched down by his head gazing at him casually. "I've seen tougher men take a hit like that and not come through it with all their senses intact." She gave him a smug look. "Mind you, I'm guessing that the others who did reverently wished that they hadn't. How do you feel?"

            Reeve muttered something rude.

            "How unpleasant. I guess that means you've worked out that I've come to kill you."

            Reeve squeezed his eyes shut and tried to roll over onto his back. "Why?"

            "I thought I explained that part. However, I'm not an unreasonable woman. I'm always open to alternatives." She added.

            Reeve gave her a suggestion that earned him a punch in the nose. Warm blood dribbled sideways over his cheek.

            "You know, I didn't /have/ to come to you for this. I could have gone and asked your girlfriend for some suggestions."

            Reeve wasn't sure what came over him then, or before for that matter. He would never have thought that he would act all defiant in a situation like this. He sounded like…well, he sounded like Reno he supposed. But telling your attacker to go and fuck themselves was one thing; blindly fighting back was something else entirely. Which was probably why he was so surprised at himself when he lashed out forcing Destiny to overbalance and fall backwards. Though perhaps he wasn't quite as surprised as Destiny herself.

            He rolled up onto his feet and staggered off toward the main room. He wasn't running, not with her threat still hanging in the air. But he wasn't sure what he was going to do either. Kill her? He wasn't sure if he could regardless of her threats. It was one thing to shoot a man with a gun pointed at your friends' heads and a totally different matter again to plan out a death with a clear purpose in mind. One thing was certain though; he needed a weapon. 

            He got to the dining room table where his equipment was still strewn around his workspace before he realized his mistake. Reno had taken his nightstick with him.

            A heavy boot from behind planted itself into the back of his knee causing a surprised grunt and a large amount of pain. The leg stopped supporting him and he fell smacking his chin on the tabletop as he went down. A rough helping hand grabbed his hair to make sure he fell backwards. Once down he received another boot in the side.

            "I'd say 'nice try', but it wasn't really. That last one was for pissing me off."

            He managed to open his eyes a little, enough to see Destiny and the small gash just below her hairline where she must have fallen into the opposing wall in the hall.

            "Negotiations are over."

*

            Unless Reno's version of a 'close look' was to actually see up the man's left nostril he was now, what he might consider close enough, he really couldn't hope to get any closer to Levinson than he was now without actually sitting in the man's lap. And to be honest, Reno was feeling a little ambivalent about the whole situation. 

            Reno was currently hiding out in the man's walk-in wardrobe. Why he was there was a long story. Suffice to say that Reno had wandered into a dark room, nosed about for a while before he had heard approaching footsteps and the words of Destiny repeating in his head that this was supposed to be a joint effort assassination and that under no circumstances was Reno to take the entire glory for himself after she had already begun to help him. Something to do with the rather sadistic removal of his balls with nothing but a nail file if he was remembering it all clearly. 

            But anyway, here he was hiding. And Levinson had no idea. This was one of the reasons Reno was puzzled. From the small crack between the doors, Reno could still see his favorite black coat tucked neatly over the back of the chair by the desk next to the window just where he'd left it. He could have hit himself for such idiocy had it not been for a rather large fact that so far, Levinson had yet to spot it. Currently Levinson was occupied in front of his full-length mirror admiring himself in a new black silk vest. It had been going on for about ten minutes.

            Needless to say, this was not the image of the man Reno had built up in his mind.  This dark-haired, gold skinned, twice a week gym type buffed poser was not what he'd had in mind when he'd imagined the evil arch enemy who'd sent his minions after Reno's head. No nemesis of his, Reno felt, should have a smile like a game show host. It was making his trigger finger itch just to be more or less in the same room as the man. Men like this were supposed to be small time and not important enough for such grand titles within the Reno scale of things.

            "No fucking way. This guy should be selling me a dodgy car, not have me lying in wait in his wardrobe for fuck's sake."

            Eventually, Levinson left the mirror and started back off toward the door, flipping off the light switch as he went. The sudden of the exit took Reno a little off guard but he really couldn't pass up the opportunity of escape. Silently, Reno slid the door the rest of the way open and padded across the room toward the door he had seen Levinson leave through. It wasn't until he was actually about to step through the doorway that he saw the shadow standing there waiting for him in the darkness. 

            "And here I thought you were clueless." Reno muttered at the shadow.

            "I probably would have been to be honest if it hadn't been for the motion sensors downstairs and the fact that you left your coat lying over the back of my chair."

            "So what was all that just now? Trying to tempt me out to kill you? I gotta say, I was pretty tempted."

            Levinson's white teeth glowed in the gloom when he smiled that wide smile. "You're a Turk and I nearly caught you. I'm actually disappointed. I used to be in awe of you. Even after I heard you wanted me dead."

            "Excuse me? Nearly caught?"

            "Well yeah, I could have had half of my people here to intercept you within ten minutes but lucky for you I didn't make that call. And I'm not so naive to think I could take you on my own. You wont find escaping all that difficult I'm sure. I may not be quite in awe of you anymore, but I can still respect a Turk no matter who holds the mantel."

            Reno couldn't believe this. For all the information Destiny had given him on the place, motion sensors were not supposed to be a part of it. 

            "Hang on just a moment." Reno said backing the conversation up in his mind. "You think I want you dead right, and you /still/ didn't call in any backup?"

            It was almost unnoticeable, but Levinson's smile slipped just that little bit. "Surely being what you are, I knew you'd be honorable in the face of my own sacrifice."

            Reno did all he could, he laughed. "What? You think Turks are honorable? Whoa, whatever bedtime stories your mom has been handing you are so far off the truth it'd make you wet yourself if you realized just how deep in shit you currently are for believing in such a fantasy." Reno grinned and studied Levinson's face as best he could in the bad light. "Then again, I think you've just realized."

            Levinson shifted quickly, probably going for a weapon. But Reno was faster, he grabbed the open door and swung it back to smack squarely into Levinson who grunted and dropped whatever he had reached for. Pulling it all the way back open, Reno planted his boot into the other man's mid-drift propelling back out into the hall and into the opposite wall. After the flurry of movement, Reno stood back and watched calmly as Levinson tried to get his breath back. 

            "If I didn't know any better Chris," Reno told him smugly, "I would think you didn't call in all your little friends just so you could meet with one of those fabled Turks of yours face to face. Man to man if you will, though in your case that might be stretching it a little."

            "So what if I did?" Levinson gasped.

            Reno smiled in disbelief. "You don't seem to understand. You're a fucking idiot. You heard that I wanted you dead but you meet with me in a dark empty house just because you've got a major hard-on for acting the big bad guy. What did you think I was gonna do, say 'well met, worthy foe, I look forward to doing combat with you on the glorious field of battle'? Give me a break. The only worthy thing I'm going to take home from this meeting is the safe knowledge that the man who set his band of rabid dogs on me is a complete dickhead. Let me guess, the only reason you did send all those assassins after me in the first place was so you could lure me into a meeting like this wasn't it?"

            "What? No! How else do you think I could deal with someone who wanted me dead? You think I wouldn't retaliate in kind?" Levinson shrugged painfully. "I thought maybe if you believed I was as good as you you'd be more wary."

            Reno rolled his eyes. "So the fact that your father was a Turk, you'd taken his semi known name in honor of him, you moved to Junon, well known home of the Turks and have some stupid ideal about us being honorable and deadly and all that didn't phase you in the least. Just exactly how long did you rehearse that little speech of yours?"

            Levinson glared at him. "Obviously not long enough."

            "It was a good speech really. Just try not to contradict yourself in the future, it'll clue people in."

            Levinson pushed himself off the wall behind him and squared his shoulders. "Well, aren't you going to kill me now?"

            Reno thought about it. "No." He eventually answered to both his own and Levinson's surprise.

            "Why not?" Levinson blurted.

            "What? You want me to change my mind?"

            "No, no." Levinson assured. "So are you going to force a truce instead?"

            "I think I already did."

            "Oh." Levinson looked at Reno oddly. "Are you really that afraid of my Marauder's?" 

            "Well annoyed enough to want you dead as you might have guessed already. "

            "Wow."

            Reno frowned at him. "This is getting creepy, I'm leaving."

            "Wait! Maybe we could get past all this. Form an alliance?"

            "No. And the next assassin I see of yours I'm going to cut his or her head off and leave it on your doorstep, understand?"

            Levinson nodded and watched Reno push past him and head back down the hall. A few moments later a shadow moved out of the darkness behind Levinson and moved silently toward its master.

            "He thinks you're an idiot," the shadow said frankly.

            Levinson sighed. "I am an idiot. He thinks I'm blinded because I'm in awe of the Turks. Which is kind of true I'll admit. But I'm not half as blinded as he is I'll tell you now." Levinson shook his head tiredly. "Keep an eye on him, something's not right. And have someone see what Ryder's up to. I think it's time we stopped playing with these two."

            "Should we kill Reno?"

            "No, stay away from him for the time being. Send too many after him and he might bring the others into this. The odds are better this way. Let's just make sure he doesn't do anything stupid shall we?"

            "Yes, Sir."

*

            When Cait swung back in through the window he wasn't expecting much. He knew it had gotten late. He more than suspected that Reno had gone out, never spending too many nights at home. He did expect Reeve to be still awake and tinkering with whatever he was most recently working on. What he wasn't expecting was the sight of the man going through Reno's glass coffee table. That was enough of a shock. To see a dark haired woman standing over him with a maniacal grin dressed all in black was a new thing entirely. To his own credit, Cait spent very little time digesting what exactly was going on here. He just wondered if he could make the time between now and when he managed to rip her throat out go swifter. 

            He bounded across the floor on all fours before launching himself squarely at the woman's face, claws outstretched.

            Reeve rolled himself off the remnants of the table, expecting at any moment Destiny's boot. It never came. Instead he heard this inarticulate high-pitched growl and looked up in time to see a black and white blur shoot through the air and attach itself to Destiny's head. Destiny squealed as the force of the impact knocked her back a few steps and started to frantically claw at the fury ball of claws and vengeance attached to her.

            Reeve started to get back to his unsteady feet and dislodge as much loose glass from his clothing and hair as possible while silently trying to come to terms with this new idea of rescue. And with it a stronger sense of righteous anger that can only be felt by those who now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are going to win.

            He bent down and scooped up a large piece of broken glass just as Destiny managed to pry Cait loose and hurl him toward the far wall. Reeve watched Cait pivot in mid-air, hit the wall feet first and use his own momentum to spring away from it, somersaulting and landing on all fours halfway back toward his foe. He spat out a piece of Destiny's hair.

            Destiny staggered back a few steps before recovering and readying herself for the next attack. One cheek was marked by three deep bleeding scratches. Her neck was ten times worse. 

            "You want to get your little toaster oven away from me? You're not playing fair Reeve."

            "We were playing? Could've fooled me."

            Destiny frowned obviously reassessing the situation. Reeve could just imagine what she was seeing. A heavily beat up man with a piece of broken glass glaring at her in a murderous rage and Cait, who continued to stalk her across the room.

            She apparently made a decision, but Cait chose that moment to launch himself at her again. She saw it coming this time and flung her foot out to kick him away, but Cait simply grabbed onto her boot and in defiance of gravity jumped onto of her outstretched leg and planted his claws into her thigh. Destiny smacked him away. Before Cait landed she had turned and fled out the open door further across the room. Cait started to dash after her but Reeve called him back.

            "Let her go."

            Cait was livid. "What? Why?!"

            "Because you aren't chasing her across the city by yourself," Reeve told him finally allowing himself to stop his forced standing and slither down onto his knees. His arms, neck and torso had been cut up by his trip through the table; the rest of him had just been pummeled rather excessively into one big purple bruise. He'd never been this badly beat up in his life and was seriously beginning to wonder why the others would put themselves into these situations time and again. He felt the greatest desire to pass out.

            Which he did.

***

            Reno stood in front of his open apartment door gazing in at the remnants of his furniture. Keys in hand he wandered disbelievingly into his place and stopped in the lounge room. Cait was by the destroyed coffee table nursing Reeve's head on his outstretched legs and picking bits of glass out of his unconscious master's scalp. Cait looked up at the noise and gave Reno such a sad expression that it snapped Reno out of his shock and make his expression harden angrily.

            "That bitch is dead."

*********

            _Notes by Ace:_

_            Sorry about this but you'll have to deal with me for the time being. For those of you who don't know, AF's computer is dead so I'm helping her out with a few of her fics till she can get back to posting. For more info you're better off checking out the Neo Midgar News mailing list that can be accessed on her site cause I'm not going through it all now. We'll try to get chapters out often, but be prepared for setbacks because relying on me to post isn't exactly the best idea sometimes. _

_            Anyway, the notes for this chapter would have had it go on for another five thousand words, but I decided to cut it off there to make things easier on everyone. And if you think the story is getting twisty now, just wait till the next one when the boys have to suit up and go off for a little revenge. And don't worry, Aimi hasn't been forgotten._

_            Ace_

_            acelynd@excite.com_

_            anime_fearie@excite.com_

_            but don't expect a quick response._


	4. Part IV

**A Different Kind Of Superhero**

ADKOS Episode II: A Superheroes Destiny

_By AF_

**Part IV**

By AF & Ace.

*

_"So, you want me to take the first bullet or are you going to do the honors?"_

_- Cait Sith_

*

            When Reeve woke up, it was to find two faces peering down at him in varying degrees of concern.

            "Should we call an ambulance?" Cait asked anxiously.

            Reeve just groaned. 

            "Should I take that as a yes or a no?" he heard Cait ask Reno in confusion.

            "Take that as a no, Cait. Go into my room and fetch my materia will you? There should be a Cure in there."

            After Cait was gone, Reeve risked opening his eyes again. He was lying on Reno's couch in his living room beside the broken ruminants of the glass coffee table. He felt like he'd been beaten against a brick wall by a very large strong man before being thrown headfirst through a nearby window. He was rather annoyed to remember that the big strong man had been a lithe young woman and that the brick wall had been a mixture of plaster and knuckles. At the least he was closer to the mark with going through a sheet of glass but it didn't really ease his dignity much.  He might have hoped that he wasn't such a lump of pain after the experience that he didn't even feel healthy enough to move his little toe. 

            "Should I be ashamed of myself?" Reeve asked Reno a little groggily. 

            "What for?" Reno asked blandly crossing his arms over his chest. "She's been trained for this sort of shit. You haven't. Hell, she's almost kicked my ass a few times since I first met her and I've come out of most of those fights with more than a limp I can tell you."

            "Not that she beat me. I mean the fact that afterwards I don't seem to be able to feel my arms."

            Reno didn't answer for a while, just spent the time looking over Reeve's various wounds. "She wasn't playing, that's for sure. She went too far and she'll pay for it, you can trust me on that."

            The sincerity behind the wounds made Reeve look up at Reno curiously for a moment. "What are you planning?"

            "What do you think? She attacked one of my own, she's gonna get her ass kicked. Tonight."

            "I'm going too." Cait interrupted climbing back up onto the arm on the sofa and handing the green materia orb up to Reno. 

            "No, you're not." Reno answered promptly snatching the orb away and holding it out over Reeve.

            "Yes I am," Cait replied simply watching the green glow flood over Reeve as the materia took effect. "You stop me and I'll gouge your eyes out with a teaspoon."

            "I'd really rather if neither of you went," Reeve put in as the glow began to fade. He felt a little better from the treatment, but not fully healed. At least now he felt he could move.

            "Yeah well, we'll just say that you're in shock then promptly ignore you," Reno told him. "Now what do I have to do to get that suit prepped?"

            "I know!" Cait volunteered raising his hand, and in doing so almost upset his already precarious balance on the sofa arm. 

            "Shut up, you're not coming!"

            Cait smiled that big toothy smile of his and said, "Wanna bet?"

***

            Reno's motorbike sped through the night toward the Ryder building at breakneck speed. Cait was sitting up front of Reno straddling the fuel tank and paws hanging over the handlebars. It was his favorite thing next to getting drunk and chasing pigeons and Cait reveled in every opportunity to have a ride on the motorbike. His eyes were big and round and he wore a big smile while his fur looked as though he were in a wind tunnel. Usually Cait's bike rides ended up with him falling off the bike at the end of the trip dizzy as anything and looking as though he'd been zapped by lightening.

            Reno could only hope that no one he knew saw them.

            Reno stopped the bike across the road from the entrance to the building where Cait promptly fell off. Reno ignored the usual tradition and used the time it would take for Cait to regain his feet propping the bike up and stripping off his leathers. 

            Eventually Cait joined him on the roadside, smoothing down his fur.

            "So.what's the plan?"

            Up until this time, Reno hadn't been confused in the least about what he was about to do. He had every aspect clear in his mind about what he was doing, where he was going and just exactly what he was going to do to the traitorous bitch when he found her. Well, until now.

            "Plan?" Reno asked quizzically. "Well we go in there, find Destiny and pound her treacherous ass."

            "Oh I totally agree," Cait approved nodding. "But just how do you plan on getting to her? I mean last time we raided this place we had the whole team with us and even then it was tricky. We came in via both the roof and the sewers and Reeve had to cut the power and that was even before we got inside." Cait stood next to Reno on the pavement with this oddly thoughtful look. "I mean suppose we use the sewers like you did last time, we still gotta figure past all those guards and security cameras right? I mean we can't just waltz in through the front doors yelling, 'take me to your leader'."

            Reno gave Cait a look. "Watch me."

            Cait saw Reno's serious expression and puffed out his cheeks. "I want to get her as much as you do, but revenge will come very slow after they shoot us both on sight you know."

            Reno scowled at him. "If I wanted Reeve to come along I would've just bought him. Stop trying to be logical will you."

            Cait tried to look contrite. "Sorry, Reno. I can't help it sometimes. Do you think we should have called Rude?"

            "Cait."

            "Sorry, sorry. Suppressing all logic now, I promise."

            "Good, can we get on with this then?"

            "You betcha!"

            The two started off across the street toward the main doors to the Ryder building, stride quick and meaningful, heads up, expressions serious.

            "Right," Reno told Cait out of the corner of his mouth, "You get the desk guy and I'll take care of the one next to the elevator. Subdue with as much force as necessary, but don't kill. Got it?"

            "Roger. So, you want me to take the first bullet or are you going to do the honors?"

            "Cait!"

            "Right, sorry, don't know what came over me."

            Reno and Cait pushed open both of the double glass doors and stepped into the foyer. While Reno kept walking, Cait jumped up onto the reception desk to face the guard he found there. The two men covering the foyer hardly had any time to react. The one at the desk had practically no time before Cait walked up the desk and headbutted him before catching him on the rebound with a swing from his staff. The one Reno was after had a little more time and actually had his gun half out of his holster before Reno walked up, punched him once throwing him back, spun, kicked him again and in the same movement pulling his own gun from his other leg holster and bringing it up to point squarely in between the hurt and obviously shocked man's eyes. 

            "You can pull your weapon now, but I strongly suggest throwing it on the ground behind me. Cait," he called over his shoulder, "how you doing?"

            Cait's own victim was currently slumped over the desk in front of him. Cait was tentatively prodding him with a claw.

            "I think I subdued him with a little too much force Reno."

            "He breathing?"

            The guard in front of Reno tossed his weapon as requested behind Reno giving the Turk an odd sort of ironic half-smile.

            "Course he is!"

            "Good, take his weapon then come collect the other one on the floor." Reno frowned at the guard. "What?"

            "You Reno?"

            "It's a good trait in a guard to not be as deaf as a doorpost. You think I have people call me Reno so's I can be more popular or something?"

            The guard didn't look impressed. "We've been told to expect you Mr. Reno. And I have been given orders to escort you to Miss Ryder's rooms."

            Reno raised a single eyebrow at the man in unspoken question while Cait stumbled up beside him juggling the two handguns in an ongoing attempt to keep a hold of them. 

            "Sounds like a big fat setup to me," was Cait's assessment. 

            Reno looked hard at the guard. "She wouldn't dare. Not after tonight."

            "So, should I inform Miss Ryder that you'll be coming up to see her?"

            "No," Reno answered bluntly. "Why ruin the surprise?" Reno relaxed his aim on the guard and gestured toward the elevator. "Lead on."

            The three piled into the elevator, Reno keeping his gun trained loosely on the guard place in the front of the car, both he and Cait keeping to the back.

            "Cait."

            At first Cait almost missed the sound of his name. It was spoken so quietly, softer than the softest whisper Cait had to wait to hear it again just to make sure it wasn't some trick in the slight woosh of the air conditioning. 

            "Cait, stop looking around like a dork and listen up."

            Eventually Cait raised his head to look at Reno. The Turk wasn't looking at him, but Cait could see his lips moving. Anybody else probably wouldn't even hear it, but Reno knew Cait could hear the slightest whisperings.

            Cait himself couldn't reply in kind without the guard hearing him so instead reached out calmly and gripped Reno's leg, extending his claws to let Reno know that yes he had heard him and that no, he didn't appreciate the remark about being a dork. Reno once again won Cait's admiration by gritting his teeth and making no sound of pain.

            "Stop it or I'll hide my nightstick recharger."

            Cait relaxed his grip.

            "Good. And fucking /ow/ by the way. Now, once this elevator opens up I want you to make your getaway. Like I said, I don't think I'm in any immediate danger, but I'd rather have a backup plan just in case. We split up; you lose yourself in the building and wait to hear from me to see if I need any help. We can keep in contact with our radios. And for fuck's sake, don't cause any trouble. I'll take care of Destiny, so you don't need to go roughing up the guards, kay?"

            Cait gave him the universal sign for 'up yours'.

            "Fine, you can break anything that looks expensive, just do it quietly. Remember, I don't want to have to rescue you 'cause you got pissed off and fried a couple of guards."

            Cait gave him a grin that suggested nothing close to reassurance. Reno knew full well Cait would be pissed from being left out of the revenge making but Cait could see Reno had a point. Not that he had to admit that to Reno though.

            The elevator opened and they all trooped out. Well all but Cait. Cait stayed behind in the elevator and waited until Reno and the guard had disappeared down the hall. Cait figured that they'd get all the way to Destiny's rooms before the guard realized Cait was missing. A bonus of being so small and generally unnoticed Cait supposed.

            Cait jumped up and hit the button for another floor at random. He might as well see what he could while he was here. He just hoped Reno was going to be alright on his own.

*

            By the time Reno and his escort reached what he knew to be the door that led into Destiny's private quarters while staying in the building, he'd already put his gun away. He didn't want to deal with Destiny by shooting her. He had other plans in mind for the deranged bitch. 

            The guard knocked on the door but neither had to wait long for a reply. A somewhat muffled 'come' issued out from behind the closed door. The guard stepped back for Reno to pass him. It was then that he noticed.

            "Hey, where'd the robot go?"

            Reno shrugged. "Who knows? Never can keep track of the little bastard."

            The guard glared at him before turning and hurrying back off toward the elevator. Reno let him go, there seemed little reason to keep him around. No doubt he was in for an interesting night chasing Cait around the building as it was. It would keep him and the others occupied for hours.

            Reno pushed the door open, stepped into the room and shut the door heavily behind him. A figure draped across a plush leather couch groaned but didn't raise her head.

            "Not so loud, I'm feeling rather precious at the moment."

            Destiny had a cloth pressed to her head that was spotted with blood. She wore little apart from that. A dark wine colored satin nighty and a few more bandages high up on her left leg. Reno almost smiled; at least Reeve had managed to leave his mark on her if nothing else. But he didn't smile, he wasn't in the mood to.

            "Trust me, it's about to get a lot worse."

            That did make her raise her head and take the cloth away from her face. Reno saw a multitude of scratches on the sides of her face and neck.

            "Spare me the macho talk, Reno. I'm not in the mood."

            "Get up."

            "About to give me a good seeing to?" Destiny mocked, but she did as she was told, sliding her legs off the sofa and rising to her feet. "You think I haven't taken enough abuse for one night?"

            Reno's eyes narrowed. "Well, I personally think you deserve more."

            Destiny sauntered over to him. Raising her hand she gently caressed the side of his face with her palm. "And here I thought we were playing on the same side for the time being. We had a deal remember?"

            "I remember." He grabbed her arm and forced her hand away from him face. He held her arm tightly to ensure he had her full attention. "But I distinctly remember telling you nothing about beating the shit out one of my friends while I was on recon sussing out Levinson." Reno bought his face in inches away from hers an angry expression on his face. "I told you to rough him up, not to hospitalize him!"

            Destiny shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "Details, details. I bet the results the same in the end. You'll get him to officially take the Turk training and you can stop worrying. The results the same, what does it matter if I allowed myself a little fun in the process?"

            "/Fun/? You're out of your fucking mind!"

            "Am I really? Remind me again whose idea it was in the first place? This was your plan Reno, I don't regret getting carried away. To be honest, that man gets on my nerves. The only possible way it could have been sweeter is if he'd still been bunking with his girl. Now that would have been a fight worth turning up for."

            "Are you really stupid or are you trying to make me take a swing at you?"

            "Please try."

            And he did. He was pissed at her enough without her needing to goad him on, but she was ready for him. She blocked his hasty swing and bought her other fist up into his stomach. Without his suit's armor he knew that hit would have really hurt. As it was it didn't slow him much and so he was able to catch her knee in between his own legs on its trajectory into his groin. 

            Reno gave her an evil smile. "I'm not playing you know."

            Destiny worked her leg free, "Oh really?" before stepping in and placing a foot behind his ankles and throwing her entire weight against him to trip him backwards. 

            Reno hit the ground flat on his back with Destiny still with him. The impact stunned and winded him both but Destiny seemed unharmed.

            "Because I'm definitely playing with you."

            Reno looked as though he didn't know whether he wanted to hit her or kiss her. 

            He chose the latter.

*

Flattening himself against the sidewall, Cait peered around the corner quickly before ducking his head back. Seeing that is was clear, he launched himself around the corner and into an open doorway, pausing by the doorframe and crouching. Repeating the whole process again, he scurried down to the next door. Not that he needed to be doing all this. He could sense where just about everyone was on this floor, and knew that there was nothing moving nearby. But still, it was kinda fun doing the little commando runs down the hallway. Totally unnecessary, but important to Cait nonetheless. If Reno wanted him to scout this floor and make sure nobody was around he'd do just that and make sure he looked damn professional while doing so.

            He was halfway down the hallway when he picked up movement in a room slightly further up. He hadn't sensed the movement before now. Odd. Creeping a little closer to the doorway Cait could see that the room was dark. Stopping himself, he strained to listen inside the room. Perhaps someone had fallen asleep in there. It would account for the sudden movement and why he mightn't have picked it up before. But listening, he couldn't hear anything but a soft hum from various types of machines. No breathing. That was when Cait finally remembered just where he was. He was crouched outside the lab. The same place where he had found his Mog on the last foray in the building. 

            Keeping as silent as possible, Cait crept further into the room. Something was wrong. Cait couldn't see. Frantic to this new blindness, he looked back toward the hallway. He could see the illuminated hallway fine. But not through the darkness inside the room. Cursing silently, he sent a mental command to activate his night vision, something that sound have automatically activated in the dark anyway. It didn't respond. Whatever had happened, the movement in the room had ceased once more making Cait wonder if all his equipment wasn't on the blink. Determining that his sensor equipment was functioning properly took only a few moments, but he needed to be completely still while he did so. Standing here in the open doorway was not the best spot to do it. Anyone in the hallway would be able to see him. So he pushed to door closed behind him, plunging himself into total darkness and took the opportunity to run the diagnostic. As it turned out, his sensors were working fine; they were just a little confused. Designed to track organic movement it was not meant to pick up machines. Knowing that this was a lab that probably held many machines, Cait allowed a little relief to flood through him. And so he was quite shocked when something across the room blinked and two red lights lit up.

            A computer, Cait assured himself. He just wished he could relax a little better and not feel like those lights were a little too focused on him.

            Subsequently, he almost felt like climbing the nearest wall when he heard a voice command; "lights."

            The bright lights clicked on overheard, but Cait was too busy trying to beat down an electronic aneurysm by the sight he was just presented with to really take much notice of anything else in the room. On a bench, directly across the room from where he was sat another cat. Not a real cat. A Cait cat. For a moment he almost thought the fright had caused all his hair to go white and he was just simply gaping at a mirror. He'd done that once before, seen a mirror image of himself. He'd spent all morning trying to sneak up on the other Cait before Reeve had explained to him what exactly it was. But the more he stared at the other Cait cat, the more Cait began to realize that he wasn't looking at a mirror but in fact another Cait cat. The fact that the other one looked a sight calmer than Cait himself reassured him of this.

            "Hello." Cait began. There was little else to really say. He wasn't ashamed to admit that his brain just didn't quite seem to be functioning properly at present.

            The other Cait didn't respond.

            It was then that he realized exactly what he was seeing. Another him! Another robot just like him! It was exciting, humbling..it was hooked into a computer in the Ryder building. Aw fuck. The first being Cait had met that was just like him and he was most probably an enemy. That also meant that if he, the other Cait came to the same conclusions, he was in very deep shit. He didn't want to fight the robot. It seemed too wrong somehow to beat up the first he'd met of his own kind. Especially because up until now there never had been Cait's kind. The first thing he had to do was make nice. Then maybe he could find out what the hell was going on.

            The twin red eyes blinked at him and then narrowed. For some reason Cait hoped that wasn't a reaction to recognition.

            Cait ambled further toward the bench with the other Cait on it, stopping about midway and offered the robot his best toothy grin. "Hullo. My name is Cait Sith.  What's yours?"

            Again the other remained silent. But the head did lower a little as if to see Cait a little better. At least that's what he hoped the movement meant.

            "Do you have a name? I suppose I could just call you Mark III. I guess you are the Mark III even though you weren't made by Reeve or the Professor. Should I just call you Mark?" Cait was beginning to wonder if the other Cait even had the capability to understand what the hell he was saying. There was a distinct possibility that 'Mark' hadn't even been finished yet. But Cait persevered. At the very least, the robot might still be able to sound an alert. "Nice place you've got here by the way. Very tidy. My lab isn't as big. But that's good. Its cozy. Say, how come you're all alone in here in the dark? I'm hardly even alone. I have /heaps/ of friends and they always like talking to me. Do you have heaps of friends Mark?"

            For a while Cait feared that he would no response again. He was just about to launch into his next barrage of questions when the other Cait interrupted him. 

            "Aimi." A soft voice. Almost a little unsure in speaking. It totally contradicted the look on the robot's face. But what really caught Cait's attention wasn't the expression. It was the sound of the voice.

            "You're a girl." Cait's eyes opened a bit at that. "Wow. And your name is Aimi. That's a pretty name."

            And it was really in Cait's mind. /She/ was finally starting to respond to him. Though those strange red eyes looked at him a little fiercely, /her/ voice sounded nothing but timid and perhaps even a little shy.

            "Thank-thank you."

            "My pleasure." Cait beamed. He now felt confident enough to take a few more steps forward.

            "Stop right there." /That/ was not timid in the least. /That/ was a command given in a harsh tone of voice. Cait froze. "You are an intruder."

            A quick twist and the cable that connected Aimi to the computer disconnected. Aimi jumped down from the bench easily and took up a stance that was anything but friendly. 

            "Woah." Cait held up both his paws in a soothing gesture and took a step back. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to talk to you."

            "You are the enemy."

            "I don't know about that. I don't want to fight you."

            Aimi didn't seem to know how to respond to that.

            "Aren't you curious?"

            "About what?"

            "Well about me I suppose." Cait was more than a little confused now. She hadn't acted at all surprised at seeing another of her kind. It was possible, he supposed, that she might be too new yet to realize that their kind was nonexistent outside of this room. But Cait had the growing suspicion that this wasn't the case at all. Aimi was obviously in Ryder's camp. Probably built from the stolen notes from the lab last year. There was nothing to suggest that some of the notes hadn't been copied before the originals had been reclaimed. More than likely, Aimi knew of Cait from someone telling her that Cait was attached to an enemy faction. She had been prepared for this.

            "Why should I be?"

            "Well because it's not everyday you run into another of your kind. In our case it wasn't likely to happen ever. There /is/ only two of us you know." Well, Cait hoped.

            Aimi relaxed in her stance a little. But she didn't show any signs of surrender. "It makes no difference. You are a Turk."

            "Huh? No, no. I'm not a Turk. They're my friends." Something struck Cait then, "Oh boy, you've gotta meet Reeve. And Reno, and Elena and Rude. Oh oh, and Mog!"

            "What's a.Mog?" 

            Well that answered at least one question for Cait. She knew who and what the others were. "He's big and strong, doesn't say much and gets violent when you hit him." Cait was thoughtful for a while. "Kinda like Rude." The thoughtfulness was replaced quickly with excitement, "But you've gotta meet Reeve. He's gonna freak. And then later I'll show you how to get drunk!"

            Gone was the fierceness now, now she looked a little worried. "You mean leave the lab? I cannot do that. And not with you. You are the enemy."

            "Yeah well, I can be the enemy later. Where's your sense of adventure?"

            "But, you are the enemy." She didn't sound so sure of herself now. "I cannot go with you. I must fight you."

            "Fuck that. Destiny is the enemy and Reno still pants and drools over her. Well least till tonight. Not that I'm gonna pant and drool over you." Cait was quick to assure. "I mean I can't even if I wanted to. Not that I would want to or anything. Oh wait, not that I mean-"

            "The Turk and Miss Ryder are not enemies?"

            "Well yes, they are. I just meant that, never mind. Just come with me."

            Cait closed the distance quickly and grabbed hold of Aimi paw. She broke away quickly and dropped into that defensive stance again. 

            "Oh, not this again. You know there is a whole gray area out there. Not everything is enemy and ally. I just want to talk to you and show you some stuff. If you still want to kick my ass later, fine," Cait grinned, "then we can wrestle." Immediately afterwards he screwed his face up though, "Where the fuck did that come from?" He asked himself.

            "But I cannot leave the lab."

            So maybe Aimi wasn't as free-willed as Cait had assumed she was. She was obviously programmed to stay in the lab and take on any enemies she might encounter. Perhaps Cait could work with that.

            "I guess you are also programmed for learning. And to seek our your enemies?"

            "Yes."

            "Easy fixed. I'm taking you on an educational mission to meet your enemies. While you can't fight them you can gather information on them."

            "Really?"

            "Yup." Cait went to take hold of Aimi again. This time, she didn't resist. As he walked toward the doorway he talked into his radio. "Hey Reno, you done yet?"

            The answer from the other end of the line was a little staticy. His voice sounded a little strained too. Negotiations didn't sound like they were going smoothly.

            "Ah.Almost there."

            "Look Reno, I've gotta take off. Do you need me to-"

            "No Cait you go ahead. I have everything in hand."

            "Are you sure?"

            "Gods yes. I'm sure."

            Cait shrugged and turned back to Aimi. "We'll have to walk, but we'll take the roofs. It's not very far."

********

            Reeve was busy sprawled over the couch, ice pack held tightly to the side of his head. He was still fuming over what had happened. He had always imagined that he could take care of himself if the need arose. He never thought he was like the Turks though. He wasn't capable of taking on twenty heavily armed men with his fists, but in a solid punch-up he had hoped that he wouldn't have crumpled so easily as he had tonight. He couldn't delude himself into thinking that every person out there willing to have a go at him for whatever reason wasn't just as skilled either. And from now on he vowed not to be so ignorant. Maybe ignorant wasn't the right word. But what really got him was the thought; What if he had still been at Elena's? Elena might be able to handle herself sure, but what if Destiny had hurt her? Reeve could have done nothing to stop it. Whether he liked it or not, his friends were Turks. And he was just as involved with that as any one of them were. He was a target. According to Destiny he was a rather easy and tempting target too. If Cait hadn't come back when he did, gods knew what might have happened. And gods knew what might happen the next time. The next time he might not be so lucky. The next time Elena might be around the get hurt. And he was more of a burden as he was than a help. At least he could do something about it. Next time he would be ready.

            His morose and slightly vengeful thoughts were interrupted by an insistent scratching sound at the door. He didn't really have to wonder who it was. Cait was too small to reach the door handle and he would rather scratch the door or knock on it than to jump up to reach the handle. He maintained it was too undignified. 

            Reeve painfully got to his feet, prepared to berate Cait for not waiting for Reno who was probably parking his bike downstairs. He opened the door, mouth already open to deliver his admonishment when his voice died.

            Cait gave Reeve a grin said, "Hi Reeve, this is Aimi," before trundling inside with his curious companion holding his paw and disappeared down the hall towards the back rooms with it. 

            Reeve could do nothing for a very long time but stand there with the door open and stare in the direction Cait had disappeared in.

***

_Notes by Ace:_

_            I caught a break on this one. A fair bit of the stuff was pretty much already done for this one so I didn't have to wait any great length of time for AF to get into contact with me. _

_            So, Cait's found a friend, I think, Reeve may have found a new vocation and Reno's basically been a bastard. And what a bastard he's been. Did anybody else's eyes just totally bug when they read about that or was it just me? Wow. I'll just state here that that idea was all AF believe me. Hrm, getting a little twisty now, let's see how the next installment goes in Part V._

_Ace_

_acelynd@excite.com_

_Stuff if you really feel like waiting._

_anime_fearie@excite.com_

_but it generally gets forwarded to me anyway._


	5. Part V again

_Notes by Ace part II: Okay so the first attempt at posting on didn't go well and the chapter didn't post properly and actually cut some words out as pointed out to me on the reviews (thanks btw, otherwise I would never have noticed). Because of my blindness toward my own grammatical blindness (I still can't find that error you told me about on my copy of the story) I will endeavor to get an editor of sorts to try to stop this problem in the future. I swear I will read over something ten times and never spot the mistakes myself as I could with someone else's stuff. Thanks for you patience guys, hope it was easier one the eyes at least a little this time around._

A Different Kind Of Superhero –

ADKOS Episode II: A Superhero's Destiny

By AF

Part V

*

"_You may, but there is no way you guys are making a woman outta me!"_

_- Cait_

*

When Reno got home, it was to find Reeve sitting bolt upright on the couch, staring into space. He was still feeling rather buzzed from his 'fight' with Destiny so he didn't pay Reeve's pose much attention as he waltzed in through the door, flinging his jacket onto the kitchen counter and heading to the kitchen to grab a beer. But when he got back to the lounge room and Reeve still hadn't moved, worry started to creep in.

"What's up? You look like someone's just died." Reno paused when Reeve showed no reaction. "Nobody died did they?"

Reeve mutely shook his head.

"You're alright aren't you? You didn't get brain damaged in the fight earlier did you?"

"Uh…maybe. I'm starting to think I did."

"Well, you'll be happy to know I fixed her right up on that score. She won't be bothering you again."

Reeve didn't seem to be listening. "Do you know who Cait came home with?"

"Came home with? He just told me he was taking off, didn't say anything about anybody else. Oh fuck, he didn't take a prisoner did he?"

"I'm not sure." Reeve shook his head. "It looked like…but it couldn't have been…"

"Spit it out man, the suspense is killing me."

Reeve finally looked up at Reno and blinked. "Cait came home with a friend. He just walked right in with it, went up the hallway and disappeared into the spare room with it. Reno, it looked like another Cait."

"Come again?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but I followed them. It really is another Cait."

Reno still hadn't gotten the news yet, Reeve could tell. Instead of trying to explain more, he beckoned for Reno to follow him and lead the way down the hall to the doorway of the spare room.

Cait and his new friend sat in the center of the newly made bed with an assortment of Reeve's gadgets in front of them. Currently Cait was having a rather enthusiastic though one-sided conversation about the evils of pretzels.

"I stood here for about half an hour watching them before you came home and I still don't really believe it," Reeve explained.

Reno's brow furrowed in confusion. "Where did he get it from?"

Reeve gave Reno a sardonic look. "You tell me."

Reno actually looked surprised. "From the Ryder building? Oh, come on! Where would Destiny…why would she…I just…I don't get it."

"Well, last year they practically had the detailed plans for Cait laid out for them. As for why, well I think that's fairly simple. Gast may never have meant Cait to be a weapon of mass destruction but he's an advanced piece of machinery all the same. There simply is just nothing like him around yet. Gast may have made him look like a toy but the implications of the work that went into creating him could eventually mean the creation of something a little less cute and a lot more dangerous. My guess is that whatever designers Destiny had working on the project would prefer to start by replicating the exact designs and making it work before they went ahead and made their own modifications.

"I think we may be looking at their Prototype."

Reno frowned. "Do you think they know Cait kidnapped it?"

"I don't think he did by the looks of things. But no, I really don't think Destiny would approve."

Reno grinned. "I feel a high five coming on."

"Not from me. Not until I get back all the copies they made of the design."

"Then why are you smiling?"

Reeve gazed in through the open door and watched the pair on the bed for a few moments before ultimately shaking his head. "Aren't you seeing this? As far as I can see this new Cait is a perfectly working copy of my Cait. I'd love to examine him."

"Yeah, well, Dr. Frankenstein, I think you'll find that difficult if you just keep lurking in the doorway all night."

Before Reeve could stop him, Reno pushed himself off the doorway and wandered into the room. Reeve, mouth open to protest hurried after him.

"Hey, Reno!" Cait greeted spotting him. "How did the beating go?"

"She'll be feeling sore in the morning," Reno assured. "Who's your new friend then?"

Cait wasn't the only one to spot Reno. The other Cait had dug its claws into the blanket and put its head down. "Turk!"

Both Reeve and Reno blinked in surprise at that. But for two different reasons entirely.

"I see your friend already knows me then," Reno guessed.

"Or should we say /girl/friend," Reeve added.

Cait giggled embarrassed. "Uh, guys this is Aimi. Aimi this is Reeve and Reno. My creator and tormenter respectively."

Aimi was eyeing them both suspiciously.

Actually, Reno was giving her much the same look.

"You already know what I am?" He obviously hadn't missed the word 'Turk' spat in his direction.

Aimi's eyes narrowed for a moment. "I know everything about /you/." She flicked her eyes toward Reeve as well. "/Both/ of you."

"Uh, yeah," Cait interrupted still a little embarrassed. "Did I forget to mention that she seems to have internal files on all of us? She has a wireless connection to the computers in the Ryder Building, isn't that cool?!"

"And you just led her here?" Reno asked accusingly.

"Well, I told her she could come spy on us for an evening. Get insider knowledge and all that. It seemed the only way to get her to come."

Reno opened his mouth to dish out some abuse to Cait but Reeve interrupted him. "Good thinking, Cait," he commented somewhat distractedly staring at Aimi intently. "Aimi, just how much information can you store at once?"

"I'm not telling you anything else," she told him stubbornly.

"Reeve, just turn the bloody thing off and take its brain out. It'll be easier than this."

Aimi got onto all fours and lowered her head. She looked ready to bolt. "You said I'd be safe tonight!" she shot at Cait.

"You are! You are!" Cait exclaimed jumping to his feet and holding up his paws pleadingly. "Reno, shut the fuck up!" he ordered over his shoulder. To Aimi he continued; "Reno's just joking, really. And Reeve's just a little curious about you. It's not everyday you meet an exact duplicate of your best ever creation."

"He means it," Aimi insisted. "And don't lie to me, this Turk," she nodded at Reeve, "didn't invent you."

"Well, Professor Gast might have started but Reeve fini-"

"I don't think that's who she means, Cait," Reeve said carefully. "You think Ryder invented the technology don't you, Aimi?"

"I don't think, I know! Miss Ryana was the first! You stole the designs!"

"What a load of-"

"Reno, please. Look Aimi, someone hasn't been entirely truthful with you. Cait here is quite a bit older than you are."

"I'm one!" Cait beamed proudly. "Wanna see my little blue chocobo, I got it at my party! And Vincent gave me a-"

"Cait, a little focus here," Reeve said patiently. "Cait's technology is older than that. It goes back to almost thirty years of combined work."

"Liar!"

Reeve held up his hands pleadingly, "Aimi, please. What if I can prove it to you?"

Aimi's brow furrowed a little at this, but she didn't look in the least ready to back down. "That's impossible. You lie."

"He's not lying," Cait told Aimi gently. Without looking back at Reno he ordered the other Turk, "Reno back the fuck off and go have a drink or something. I can hear you shuffling forward you know."

Reeve hadn't even been aware of that and he was standing beside the Turk. But one look at Reno and Reeve saw the guilty look. "Reno, please do what he says."

Reeve was surprised that Reno didn't waste time arguing. He just nodded and left without another word allowing all occupants of the room to breathe a little easier. Well all those who could breathe.

Aimi was confused. "I thought Reno was your leader. How can you order him around?"

"Well he's not really our Leader-" Cait began before Reeve interrupted with, "It's called free will Aimi. A boss can give you orders in matters of work perhaps, but not socially and even at work, no order should be followed blindly. Reno respects our judgment."

Cait gave Reeve an odd look but didn't comment on his statement. Instead he just added. "Well you should never blindly follow anyone who thinks butter is a type of sauce like ketchup and that anything liquid that can't be bought by minors is all some type of alcohol."

But Aimi was still working on Reeve's explanation. "You…judge things?"

"Form an opinion. You can make your own opinions can't you?" Reeve asked trying to sound casual.

"My opinion?" Aimi looked very confused now. She had let up from trying to look scary and sat back now with a paw to her head. "I'm confused."

Reeve noted her reaction with a smile, apparently getting the answer he was after. Unfortunately, Cait decided to press the matter even further.

"It's easy. Look, you've been told we're all the bad guys right? Do we really seem all that bad to you?"

Reeve inwardly groaned with good cause.

Aimi ceased looking confused here. "You are trying to trick me. I know who you are. I know what you do."

Cait just gave her the most mystified look. "What do you mean? I'm not…bad."

Aimi got to her feet and eyed the window. "I'm leaving."

"Please, Aimi, stay," Reeve pleaded. "Talk with us some more."

Aimi didn't answer, she just turned, leapt from the bed to the window and disappeared out into the night. Reeve dashed after her, but on looking down, he couldn't see any sign of her. One thing was for sure, she sure was agile.

When he turned, he was still surprised to find Cait sitting just where he'd been when talking to Aimi, looking blankly toward the window as though he'd just been told the world was going to end at midnight.

"Cait, are you all right?"

Cait shook his head in miscomprehension. "She…she thinks we're…evil." He looked up at Reeve pathetically. "Aren't we the heroes? How can she think that?"

Of course Cait didn't understand how nobody else but him could see the big 'good guy' sign painted above his head. The sad truth was that Cait just didn't realize the politics of the gray area and just what space the Turks filled within that gray area.

"The Turks have a lot of history, Cait. And for the most part it wasn't a very good history," Reeve told him gently. "But right now, I think we need to sort a few things out."

*

A group meeting had been called at Reno's place as soon as Reno had found out that their little visitor had scampered out the window and was nowhere to be seen. Both Reno and Reeve were of the idea that this was news that couldn't wait till later and needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Luckily, the sun was rising when the other two Turks were called in causing only slight bitching about the early hour.

Reeve and Reno waited for them around the cluttered dining table while Cait was busy trying to find his recharge cords which had been used the previous day as Tarzan vines that he had tied to the ceiling fan in Reno's room.

It was good in a way; Reeve had wanted a private word with Reno anyway.

He cleared his throat. "I've been thinking about your offer," he began.

Reno who was half asleep and only hanging onto consciousness via the tenacious hold he had on his coffee cup snapped back into awareness enough to give Reeve a bewildered look. "Offer?"

"About training," he added a shade embarrassed. "What happened last night with Destiny…well, what you said the other day made sense. It would seem that people aren't making any distinctions between Turks and non-Turks. I help you and that makes me a target doesn't it, no matter what I believe."

"It's the truth," Reno told him. "People don't care. They see us and they see you and, I'll be honest, you're the easiest target as far as they are concerned. You're not a dangerous man to face Reeve, but you're a dangerous asset to us as far as they might be concerned."

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression," Reeve said ruefully.

Reno grinned at the realization. "You're accepting, aren't you?"

"Nothing permanent, like you said," Reeve said quickly. "But I guess if I want to keep helping, there's things I need to know."

"Now, that's the best news I've had in ages! You've made the right choice."

"Yeah, well, we'll see. Just one thing though –"

"Name it."

"Let's keep this to ourselves for now. We'll see how it takes first."

"Hey no problem. After all, what El don't know can't cause her to kick my ass."

"Besides," Reeve added as Cait wandered back in, recharge cords slung over his back and dragging his battery case over the carpet and toward the table, "I think this needs to be sorted before anything else. I mean with Aimi and Destiny and everything. I don't like the idea that she has that kind of technology at her disposal."

Cait climbed up onto the table and slid the battery case toward Reeve and plunking himself down onto the table so Reeve could get to his back panel. "That bitch already fucked with my Mog. Now she's made Aimi think heroes are evil. And then, she beat up Reeve!"

"The Mog can be fixed, I'll mend and Aimi, well, she only knows what she's been told." Reeve explained.

"Exactly. Destiny's gonna pay for telling lies."

Reeve didn't know quite what to say about that. He'd mentioned to Cait before about the whole 'gray' thing, but he just refused to seem to take it in. Reno didn't seem to need to be so subtle however.

"And I suppose that you've been told nothing but the truth about us have you?"

Cait gave Reno a condescending look. "I have Tseng's diary remember. I know what insufferable pricks you Turks used to be. Still are," he added after a moment, "in some cases. But whatever's happened it's in the past. You may've once been an evil fuck Reno but it's just plain rude to brand the rest of us the same way just because of some stupid Shinra history. You're suggesting that I only know what's been programmed into me and sure, my personality may stem from two ex-Shinra employees, but that only makes me more biased /against/ what Shinra used to do, not try to defend it. I exist, I learn and I think for myself. You can't program a conscience or lack of into something. That kind of shit is something that exists within anything that can think. It's called a soul and only the person that owns the soul can choose to ignore it or not. I may be a machine, but I still have a soul."

Reeve and Reno spent the next few moments staring at Cait for a while before he felt he should break up the silence for them.

"I'm not /that/ naive. I know we aren't knights in shining armor. But I also happen to know we aren't as evil as Aimi thinks we are. And as soon as I get my white fucking horse to work I'll ride on up on it and fucking well show her won't I? As far as I am concerned, as we are now, we're pretty heroic types of people, we just get paid better than knights."

Reno was the first to speak after that. "Cait, you don't get paid at all."

"It's the godsdamned thought that counts you un-poetic bastard!"

Soon after Elena and Rude arrived, bleary eyed and in a pre-caffeine daze. Their expressions changed somewhat after Reno, Reeve and Cait filled them both in on last night's hectic events. In fact Elena looked downright guilty as if the whole part about Reeve getting beat up was because she had kicked him out of her apartment. Reeve noticed the look and sorely wanted to comfort her and tell her she was wrong, but didn't particularly want to talk about it in front of the others.

"So what's the plan? Another raid?" Rude asked eventually.

"I'm not so sure that'll solve anything," Reno answered.

"It will if we steal back whatever designs they have of Reeve's as well as the prototype," Elena pointed out.

"I realize that," Reno told her, "but don't you think she might expect something like that? Surely she's gotta know that her prototype went walkabout last night. There's only so many times we can run into the Ryder building guns blazing before she makes that place utterly Turk-proof you know. I don't think this merits us using up our precious few chances."

"Oh, come on!"

"He's right," Rude came in. "There's only so many times we can do that and this isn't exactly a life threatening situation."

"Are you kidding me?" Elena retorted. "And what exactly do you think she build that little assassin for?"

"We don't need to break in at all," Reeve spoke up. "We have a man on the inside."

Reno gave him a weird look. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I really should say we have a woman on the inside. Or will after the necessary adjustments have been made."

Everybody stared at Reeve for a few moments in utter confusion. Unsurprisingly it was Cait who first caught on. "No way!"

His reaction was clue enough for everybody else.

"A spy," Reno grinned. "I like it."

"You may, but there is no way you guys are making a woman outta me!" Cait paused then added a little calmer. "That didn't quite come out right. But you know what I mean!"

***

Levinson was just sitting down to his breakfast and newspaper when he was interrupted by someone coming up to his table and saluting. Naturally he ignored them until he'd finished perusing the front-page stories and stirred his tea. He took a sip and folded his paper, setting it delicately down onto the table beside his plate. The entire process was all posturing of course, Levinson knew this, but he also knew that if he wanted to remain awed he would have to fight down the desire to look too excited about the important news he knew this messenger must be bringing him.

"Well?" He queried.

"Sir, it's been a very busy night for both the Turks and Miss Ryder. It's been quite difficult keeping track of it all."

Levinson took a sip of tea. "Go on."

"Well, first, just after Reno left here he went straight out again about twenty minutes later with the robot and went on over to Ryder's. I didn't see what happened to the robot, but Reno was in there for about an hour before he came out and headed straight back home. Everything seemed to go quiet for a while until the other two Turks showed up at his door and went inside. About two hours later they piled into their van and headed back on over to Ryder's. Well not exactly there, but close enough without being parked right outside the joint. Dean also told me that prior to Reno getting home, he got to Ryder's place just in time to see Miss Ryder exiting her car and limping back into her building. She'd seen some action all right, but the best thing we can figure is that there was nothing going on for her group tonight. She was out on her own mission and I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't have anything to do with the fact that Reno went speeding over there just after he'd returned from here. That Reeve guy who's been staying with him looks like he lost a fight of his own from what I saw of him this morning. I reckon Reno went over there in retaliation."

Levinson took this all in while he stirred his tea in what he hoped looked like a thoughtful manner. "And here I thought the two must be in alliance against me."

"Maybe they are against you but are still warring against each other in other matters."

"No it's too convoluted. Especially if Destiny is sneaking over and attacking Turks while their Leader is conveniently away. None of our people have seen any of Destiny's watching Reno's place for quite some time. If she did attack Reeve, then she had insider information on exactly when he might be most vulnerable.

"We know that Reno seems to be only Turk interested or even aware of us. That was odd in itself. Destiny herself was very specific about us only going after Reno for that reason. If he thought this had something to do with him personally and not the business of the other Turks he would take the problem unto himself and that way would ultimately be easier to defeat in the end. Now I'm wondering whether Destiny wanted Reno singled out for entirely other reasons. After all bringing Reno around to her reasoning would be far easier than trying to manipulate all the Turks. Reno's been known to be a womanizer and Destiny is definitely not hard on the eyes. To Reno, no doubt, she would look very tempting."

"I would've thought he'd be smarter than that."

"They may be Turks, but all humans have their weaknesses, even Reno. I'm sure he believes that he is the one in control, not Destiny." Levinson sighed. "Complete idiot. I'm rather disillusioned to be honest."

"But what makes you think there's any alliance at all?"

"Let's just say I've come up with an answer I don't wish to divulge at this point in time. "

The messenger didn't look happy, but she nodded and changed the topic. "So what do we do about Destiny? If you're right, she's double-crossed us. She needs to pay."

"In time. For now perhaps we should take a leaf out of her book and up the stakes a little. It can only work in our favor."

"So…"

"So, I finish breakfast while you assembled a few of our troops and get them ready. Then we'll see if we can rock the boat a little more." Levinson smiled. "Just for fun eh?"

***

Cait looked about ready to start tearing people's eyes out.

"Don't glare at me like that Cait, you look cute."

Cait's eyes narrowed. "Cute? CUTE! I don't wanna look CUTE!"

"He'll never pass," was Elena's critical response.

"There wasn't much time, this was the best I could do."

Meanwhile the best Reeve could do was sitting on the bench in the van glaring at anyone who looked at him. A spare skin of his had been bleached and swapped with his previous one and his eyes had been taken out just long enough for Reeve to remove their colored lenses. His fur was still wet and matted in a few places, the optical fibers in his eyes glowed green not red and there was simply nothing Reeve could do about his voice to make him sound like a girl. He could pass in bad light, but if anyone cornered him they'd notice the differences pretty quickly.

"He'll be fine. The disguise is only a last resort anyway."

"Then why do it at all?" Cait ground out.

"Because it's better than nothing."

Under normal circumstances, Cait might have been enjoying himself. Reeve had given him a few new little somethings for him to use on his foray into enemy territory, but he just couldn't seem to get worked up about any of them.

"Anyway," Reno continued, "All of us are out here in case you get into trouble. No sweat right?"

"Spare me, Reno," Cait grumbled jumping down off the bench and wandering off toward the back doors of the van, "You guys'll owe me big after this. Dressing up like a girl was NOT in the job description!"

*

He could've sworn he'd heard something.

He took a few more steps down the hall before realizing that he must have imagined the noise. There was nothing here.

It was all Ryder's fault that he was jumpy. Yelling at them all to keep a lookout for an invasion was stupid. Not only did they already have about thirty guards patrolling the hallways throughout the building, but they were always ready for a threat. Yelling at everyone just made them all that little bit more jumpy. And besides, it was well after sunrise now, nobody would be stupid enough to sneak in under full sunshine.

The guard shrugged at the empty corridor and turned to go back toward his post.

What happened next happened almost too quickly for him to remember. A white something dropped down upside down in front of him, grinned a full set of shiny teeth, stared into his eyes with bright glowing green eyes and sprayed him in the face with something. He fell silently to the floor where he began to dream about big green eyes and shiny metallic teeth.

*

/"Cait, the idea is stealth. You're leaving a body trail."/

"They're not dead. Just sleeping," Cait replied quietly as he scuttled across the ceiling and around another corner. "By the time I'm found out, Reeve, I'd just as soon be gone ya know. At least the disguise is working. A few saw me before I got close to them but they just told me to get back to the lab, they thought I was Aimi."

He heard Reeve sigh deeply and recognized the suppressed annoyance. For once Cait didn't much care. He didn't want to be here for many reasons, not the least of which was having to wander around enemy territory looking like a half-cooked marshmallow. Of course another big concern was the fact that he seemed to be doing exactly what Aimi had been told to expect of him. He felt quite sad about that.

It wasn't the emotion that was giving him trouble, more the fact that he hadn't felt such a dire need to want to prove himself worthy so much before. There had always been that little touch of wanting a sort of acceptance and pride from Reeve and the others but that was parental and he supposed that was to be expected. But this was different. And he /really/ didn't want to run into Aimi during his little invasion.

He stopped next to a doorway and checked the corridor both visually and aurally. Everything seemed clear enough. He could see nobody around at all. In fact the closest person he could hear was halfway across the floor and in desperate need of a lozenge. There was no noise from inside the lab but the buzz and whirr of machines. He expected that but he was still uneasy. Last time he'd been here he'd only heard that before yet Aimi had been inside waiting to spring him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to take the risk.

"I can't hear anything inside the lab," he reported. "But that doesn't mean Aimi might not be inside. I'm not sure this is such a good idea without knowing for sure."

/"Why so scared?"/ Cait heard Reno taunt. /"Worried you'll get beat up by a girl?"/

"Well, yes." Cait replied honestly.

/"Cait, just leave the lights off,"/ Reeve suggested, /"do a bit of a quiet scout if it'll make you feel better. You're more experienced than her, there's no reason to worry."/

"Well that would be a great idea if you'd ever gotten around to fixing my night-vision. Taking out my lenses compromised my motion detectors and for some reason I can't get these friggin' suckers to retract into my paws." The suckers in fact chose that moment to retract causing Cait to fall from the ceiling. Once on the floor he rolled into a sitting position and rubbed his head. "Ow. That actually hurt. You know, my union will be hearing about this."

/"Cait, there is no union."/

"I think that may be the problem."

/"Look I promise a full diagnostic once this is over. I'll fix everything. You've got to understand, I'm learning as I go with your technology same as you. You'll just have to cope."/

Cait didn't even bother to reply. He unslung his staff from its harness on his back and tapped the door release with it. The door whooshed open into total darkness. But that was to be expected. If he were Aimi, he'd use every advantage he could above his opponent. She obviously knew he couldn't see in the dark and planned to use it against him.

To his surprise when he stepped in, the door closed behind him and the overhead lights came on, illuminating the room with their harsh fluorescent glare. Unsurprisingly, Aimi was sitting on her bench opposite the door, waiting for him.

"You knew I was coming?"

"I could hear guards dropping two floors up," she replied smugly. "I knew you couldn't be trusted."

"So what, all the guards you alerted are hiding under that filing cabinet in the corner or something?"

"I didn't alert the guards. I knew what you were after."

Understanding dawned on Cait. "You think I'm here for you? No way, I'm not a kidnapper. I'm just here to steal all your stuff."

"Oh," Aimi said. "Well I knew you were coming here anyway. I don't need guards to stop you. Miss Destiny was mad at me for leaving before. I plan to make it up to her."

"Look are we gonna fight or not? I can see explaining things to you is doing no good. You're so set on the fact that I'm the bad guy, you're the good guy and nothing I can say is gonna change that. The designs for you, everything they have on your technology was stolen from Reeve over a year ago, not that you'd believe me. So let's do this already. To be honest, I don't feel good about being here anyway, bits of me are in severe need of a service, and my skin itches from the bleach."

Aimi watched him carefully and didn't reply.

"Look, I don't want to fight you. How bout I just take what's ours and we can call it a day yeah?"

"There are no files anymore," Aimi replied eventually. "Not paper ones. There is nothing you can steal."

Cait looked over at the banks of computers in understanding. Obviously they wanted to make stealing them back as hard as they could. They'd copied the notes onto the computers.

Aimi stood. "And actually I kind of do want to fight you, I want to know who will win."

"You think that will prove who was made first?"

"Exactly. It will prove that I am not a copy."

Cait nodded and flexed his claws. "Bring it on."

*

"I don't like it, he's been too quiet."

"Give it time," Reno told Reeve. "He's probably doing a stealth run like you suggested."

Reeve still looked unsure.

"Rude and Elena are near the building in case he needs backup. If it'll make you feel better I'll go get in a better spot as well."

"Actually, that might not be such a bad idea. Thanks Reno."

"No sweat."

Reno was actually still in his suit from last night. Without power running through the suit it actually felt quite heavy, but he had kept it on just in case he needed to spring into action. He mightn't like the way the suit felt on but he knew it was worth it to wear. Unfortunately it wasn't designed for inconspicuousness on the daytime Junon street. And he hadn't bought any extra clothes.

"You might as well switch me on if I have to wear this thing. I'll try to keep out of the street."

Reno waited until Reeve had flicked on his various monitoring devices before depressing the button on the side of his neck to fire up the suit. The small monitor on his wrist beeped once and he felt the suit contract very slightly around him and become a little lighter on his frame. Once he made sure all systems were go he opened one of the van's rear doors and hopped out into the daylight, slamming the door closed behind him.

A small distance away he jogged into the shaded opening of an alley mouth and would have ducked out of sight if a solid hand hadn't grabbed him first and slammed his back up against the wall in what would have been a rather jarring fashion had it not been for the protection of his suit.

Now, normally, Reno would have resisted. The impact hadn't stunned him in the least and he could have had the person holding him rolling on the ground in pain before they knew what had hit them. Recognition made him hesitate first though, the second hesitation was because Yuffie did not seem to want to attack him after her initial grab.

"What the-?"

"Reno really," came a male voice from farther up the alleyway, "you really shouldn't swear in front of the lady." Levinson appeared out of the gloom and came up to stand just behind Yuffie. "Honestly, she swears enough as it is without further encouragement."

"What, you come to finish the job in person this time?"

Levinson stuck his hands into the pockets of his very well tailored black suit pants and shrugged. "I really don't think that's necessary. I'd rather us trade information rather than blows at this point in time. I think we may have both been played for fools."

Reno snorted and roughly shoved Yuffie's arm away from him. "I get the feeling they didn't have to play much with you."

Levinson smiled. "Really? And here I'm still under the impression that you are behind the game. I take it you don't know who has been behind these attacks on you?"

Reno narrowed his eyes. "Destiny put you up to it did she?"

Levinson actually looked surprised. "I'm impressed. How did you figure it out?"

"Please, this is just like her, playing each side off one another. She sends people after you telling you that I sent them and then you send people after me in retaliation while she's telling me that you have people attacking her too. It's pretty obvious when she doesn't bother covering her tracks. I knew she was sending people after you. I figured I'd just go along with what she was planning, it'd all turn out to be for my benefit in the end so why rock the boat?"

"She wanted you to kill me because I was the competition," Levinson pointed out.

"So? May I remind you that you were trying to kill me without any other evidence than the say so of a beautiful woman in tight clothing. People that stupid with the apparent resources you have should be shot. I can deal with Destiny, but you had really started to annoy me. Why not team up with her if it meant getting rid of you?"

Levinson smiled. "I'm glad to see my faith in the Turks is restored. And as you may have suspected I'm here to suggest a truce of sorts."

"You may have noticed that I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."

"Of course. I'll leave you to it, but don't take too long to decide. I'll be in touch."

Reno watched the two of them walk back deeper into the shadows of the alley but not before Yuffie smirked at him.

"What a bunch of-"

It was at this time Reno finally heard urgent voices coming from the earpiece dangling freely from his collar. He snatched it up and fitted it in.

"Say again?"

/"Something's wrong! I think Cait's in trouble!"/

*

Cait used the spare moment to frantically bat out the fire that had sprung up on his tail. So much for using magic, his fire spell had rebounded straight off Aimi and had almost caught Cait head on if he hadn't been quick enough to roll away in time.

Fighting Aimi was almost like hunting for dangerous man-eating mako monsters. They were exciting and awe-inspiring to find and see but after that the full terror set in just before realizing how dead he truly was. Uncovering a new tactical skill of Aimi's was just like that.

One concession was that Reeve had been right in one regard; Cait was a better and faster fighter, but Aimi had the upgrades. So far he'd found out that she had a constant magic barrier around her, better tactics planning and, oh yeah, two very sharp weapons she seemed to been extremely competent with.

Cait hated to admit it at this point in time but retreat was becoming more and more of an option about now. But he couldn't leave without getting what he'd come for. Walking up to a computer and plugging himself in to download files while he was in the middle of a fight was a good way for him to die because he blanked out for a few seconds. So whatever he was going to do he was going to have to take care of Aimi first.

He had just the idea too. He just had to get himself hurt.

The next time Aimi came at him with a dagger he only stepped far enough away from it so it caught the least amount of him. What he had intended as a mild scratch though turned out to be a rather deep gash that cut into his chest severing several necessary coolant tubes. Green liquid spurted out of him and Cait fell to the floor in a fury heap.

Aimi blinked at the downed Cait in surprise. She hadn't actually thought she'd hit him with that. She's expected the other robot to dance away from her blade like usual.

She moved cautiously closer to her fallen enemy, her feet soaking in green coolant. Eventually she leant down and prodded him with one of her daggers. He didn't move.

She was surprised to find out how sad she felt. "I'm sorry Cait."

Cait's paw struck out causing Aimi to trip and lose her weapons in surprise. Once he was back up on his feet he pulled her up with him his claws planted firmly in her shoulder and swung her around till he could get at her back.

"Me too." He responded clawing open her back panel and jamming a cord into a socket.

Both robots seized up and blacked out.

*

Rude was the last out of the building after the mad dash inside to save Cait. He came out with the lifeless Cait in his arms, green liquid trickling out of a large wound on Cait's chest. And more surprisingly, he had limp Aimi slug over his shoulder as well. He hurried over to the van got in the back before it raced off into the night.

Inside the van Rude put Cait down onto the bench where Reeve bent over him surveying the damage.

"It's coolant. Hopefully he switched himself off before he overheated and fried his brain." Reeve explained, he didn't sound very worried though. "He seems pretty intact though."

A metallic whirring stated up from Cait made all the more louder than usual because of Cait's open chest.

"How did you find him?" Reeve asked Rude.

"On the floor next to the other one. A cable going out of his back panel into hers. That green stuff everywhere."

"What? You're sure?"

Rude looked surprised. "Yeah."

Reeve went back over to Cait just as the robot opened his eyes. "Did you know that they put all your files onto the computers for safe keeping before you stole your notes back last year? And did you know that Aimi has remote access to those files just like a normal computer?"

"Really?" Reeve asked smiling.

"Yeah. I got everything including what they did to mog and fried their computers. Guess who just got to third base with Aimi."

The whirring stopped as Cait shut down again leaving the others smiling in amazement.

*

"Will Cait be alright?" Elena called from the bedroom.

Reeve was back in Elena's apartment looking out of the window of her third story apartment with a faint smile.

"He'll be fine, nothing I can't fix."

Elena, finished getting changed after their mission came over to him and wrapped an arm around his waist so she could share the view with him.

Reeve winced a little at the touch, still a little sore from the previous night.

"Sorry."

"Not your fault. My aching ribs are courtesy of Reno's coffee table."

"Not what I meant. I'm sorry that I…I mean you wouldn't have been there if…I mean she was probably looking to have a go at Reno and found you instead. If you'd been here…"

Reeve smiled at her, "Then you probably would have beaten the shit out of me instead and I'd be bruised and without a girlfriend."

"Reeve! I'm not joking, she could have killed you."

"She was after me. She would have found me here just as easily. And then you might have gotten hurt too."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Elena replied sullenly, "The bitch would have been picking teeth out of the back of her head for a fortnight."

Reeve's smiled widened. "I don't doubt it. I just said 'might'. Don't apologize, if I wasn't being an asshole you wouldn't have kicked me out. I don't blame you, so don't blame yourself."

Elena made a non committal sound and snuggled into his side. "Just remind me to kick her ass next time I see her."

Funnily enough, Reeve was thinking the same thing.

***

_Notes by Ace part II: Okay so the first attempt at posting on didn't go well and the chapter didn't post properly and actually cut some words out as pointed out to me on the reviews (thanks btw, otherwise I would never have noticed). Because of my blindness toward my own grammatical blindness (I still can't find that error you told me about on my copy of the story) I will endeavor to get an editor of sorts to try to stop this problem in the future. I swear I will read over something ten times and never spot the mistakes myself as I could with someone else's stuff. Thanks for you patience guys, hope it was easier one the eyes at least a little this time around._

_Notes by Ace:_

_For those who don't already know, AF is gone for the moment. Computer fried and no net. This is why it has been an o so long time between posts. I am posting in her stead using emailed notes I get whenever she can manage to get to a computer with net access. Anyway…_

_Don't know if that was a good conclusion to an episode or not. Clear enough? Not really? All I know is that AF had already written over 5000 words for this chapter in disjointed paragraphs with no clear ending in mind. Oh well, it's an ending at least. Well, probably. Maybe…_

_Cheers_

_Ace_

Updates are only found at Yahoo Groups: Neo_Midgar_News.


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